Late on Friday night, the Alwandi police arrested a 40-year-old class teacher of a government primary and middle school in Koppal District for allegedly sexually assaulting and harassing a Class 6 student.
On Thursday morning, Anusha*, a Class 6 student, said that she would never step into her school again. Anusha's father, 40-year-old Ramanna*, tried to persuade her to go. Despite several efforts and multiple arguments with Anusha, Ramanna, could not convince his daughter to tell him why she did not want to go to school. Finally, Anusha broke down and told her parents that her class teacher was sexually harassing her.
Angered by the turn of events, Ramanna alerted his neighbours and the village about the horrors his daughter was allegedly facing in the hands of her teacher Ibrahim. Around 15 to 20 people of the village, along with Ramanna, went to the school to confront Ibrahim.
Speaking to TNM, Ramanna says, "This was not the first time my daughter had decided to not go to school. She would skip a lot of classes but she had never outright said that she wanted to drop out. She would eventually go back. On Thursday, we were so shocked to hear why. I initially assumed that she was not interested in studying but the reason was completely different."
According to Ramanna, Ibrahim would allegedly call Anusha to the staff room and ask her to kiss him. "My daughter told me that he would ask her to sit on his lap and give him a kiss. She says that he kept doing it almost every day. She would always refrain from going to school on the days he would teach them. She would also hide from him in the school compound," Ramanna said.
On Thursday, Rammana and the people of the village went to the school and demanded that stringent action be taken against Ibrahim. The principal of the school took note of the complaints and alerted the Alwandi police.
"We wanted the family to come forward and file a complaint but the girl's father was initially hesitant. Finally, on Friday evening, her father filed a complaint and an FIR was registered. We arrested Ibrahim on Friday night and he is in police custody currently," the Alwandi police told TNM.
Ibrahim has been booked under 354A (sexual harassment) of the IPC and section 7 (sexual assault), section 8 (punishment for sexual assault) and section 11 (sexual harassment of a minor) of the POCSO Act.