The Madras High Court has ordered the cancellation of the conditional bail given to the two accused in the alleged sexual harassment of two male students at a school in Chennai. The court further demanded that the Magistrate at the Tiruvallur Mahila Court explain the reasoning behind granting bail to the alleged child sexual abuser.
In July, 200 parents gathered at the school to question authorities about alleged sexual abuse of children travelling by a school bus. Following this, a complaint was filed by the parents of two young boys who were allegedly sexually harassed at the All Women's Police Station in Poonamallee. Based on this, the police had arrested 48-year-old Bhaskar, a cleaner and Indira, a female conductor. The accused were, however, let out on bail in September on the condition that they come sign a register in the station every day.
The father of one of the survivors, however, moved court this week alleging that the police were deliberately attempting to close the case with just the two arrests, despite several other school officials being involved. He has further alleged receiving threats from local politicians connected to the school and demanded that the CBCID take over the case.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh who was hearing the case, then directed the public prosecutor to initiate proceeding to cancel the bail and sought an explanation for the circumstances under which the bail was granted.
"The father has also stated, based on his child's statements that foreign nationals were involved in the harassment. When he told the police this, they did not take heed and didn't include this in their investigation," says Advocate V Kannadasan, the counsel for the parents. "Who are the police to decide what to include and what not to when a probe is not even conducted. We also put forth this information to the judge," he adds.
The judge who was reportedly appalled by this allegation, has demanded a status report from the police on this case.
In October, when parents of the children who were allegedly abused spoke to TNM they stated that repeated attempts to get the police to investigate the case further had failed. The mother of the four-year-old child survivor said that her son had recalled that multiple people were involved in the sexual abuse. But the investigating official, Franvin Dani maintained that their probe did not lead to any other suspects.