Chennai: A week after the headmaster of a government school in Tiruvallur was booked for molesting a 14-year-old girl student, police are yet to arrest him. Two teams, headed by a district superintendent of police and a woman inspector, are currently on the lookout for the accused.
According to sources, the 14-year-old student was the daughter of a cleaner at the school and used to stay back after school hours to help her mother. The school reportedly had only one bathroom for the use of both staff and students, and Bhaskaran (53), who was the headmaster of the school for close to a year, allegedly sexually assaulted her in that common bathroom.
On November 11, the man allegedly followed the girl into the bathroom and assaulted her after school. The girl confided to her mother, who took the matter up with the school authorities. According to the police, the school failed to approach them immediately with a complaint despite it being a case of child sexual abuse.
“They approached the Childline first and the non-governmental organisation escalated the matter to the district Chief Educational Officer (CEO), who suspended the headmaster,” said an investigating officer. “But the complaint came to us over a month late, on December 22,” he added. The failure to immediately report the matter to the police, the officer alleges, gave the accused enough time to escape.
“He went absconding after the complaint was filed. We are still searching for him,” she said. “He is a divorcee and has no immediate family. So searching with kin is ruled out. We are trying to trace his phone signal now. We are confident of nabbing him soon,” the officer said.
Tamil Nadu Teachers Association President P.K. Ilamaran called the incident deplorable. “This Bhaskaran is not a recognised teacher. He does not have any authentic documents. We’ve been pushing to have ID cards for all government appointed teachers,” he said. “These teachers need to be father-figures for the students here. It’s terrible that he has been accused of it,” he added.
It is also unacceptable that government schools do not have separate washroom facilities for male and female students. “Some schools do not even have washrooms, instead of having SMART classes and SMART attendance, we request that the government should have basic facilities like separate washrooms,” said Ilamaran.
