On Saturday evening, a 99-year-old retired government school headmaster was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a child by the Avadi all-women police station in Chennai. Inspector Shubha Rani acted immediately following a tip-off that he behaved inappropriately with a 10-year-old girl. There was no complaint but the officer went straight to the housing quarters to investigate and was appalled by the facts that emerged.
99-year-old Parasuraman, an affluent man in the neighbourhood, had rented out 10 houses. Amongst the tenants were Raja* and Chitra*, an auto driver and homemaker by profession respectively. Recently, their daughter Radha* complained of discomfort in her abdomen and the couple's attempt to treat it failed. That is when, the young child told them about the horrors she was facing at the hand of the 'owner thaatha' (owner grandfather).
"He has targeted this little girl because her mother actually works part time for him. Parasuraman's wife is bed ridden and Chitra helps take care of her, so he pays her. This dependence on him for money, made him arrogant," says the inspector.
Parasuraman has a car shed in the property he owns where he allegedly sits on an armchair surrounded by children in the vicinity. The structure has cloth around it to hide what is happening inside.
The investigating official also alleges that the child was taken inside, and it here that he allegedly sodomised and touched her inappropriately.
But what’s disturbing is that this may not be the first time the 99-year-old has allegedly sexually assaulted a child.
"Another nine-year-old has also admitted that he sexually assaulted her within the same car shed," says the inspector. "We have further been told that one family left the quarters because he misbehaved with their child. If this is how he behaves at this age, we shudder to think what he did as the headmaster of a school," she alleges.
Family threatened
To make matters worse, Parasuraman's children, when they caught wind of their father's actions allegedly attempted to threaten Radha's family.
"They tried to come to some form of settlement. When the family was unwilling, they tried to evict them. They are all clearly aware of their father's crimes. It was in fact one of the old man's relatives who gave us the tip off," says the inspector.
Parasuraman, however, continues to deny the crime. He has told the police that the children are lying and that he was merely 'playing with them'. He has however been remanded to judicial custody and booked under the POCSO Act.
"These children used to call him grandfather and the parents didn't even suspect that he would be such a pervert," says the inspector, adding, "But just at look what he has done."
*Names changed