A former Coimbatore school teacher who was accused of sexually assaulting a Class 12 student, which came to light after the girl’s suicide, has been detained under the Goondas Act. The Coimbatore city police has booked 31-year-old Mithun Chakravarthy and a detention order was served to him in the Coimbatore Central Prison, where he is under judicial remand.
TNM spoke to Jayachandran IPS, Deputy Commissioner (Law and Order), Coimbatore City police who said that the Goondas Act was added due to the nature of offences committed by Mithun Chakravarthy. “Apart from other sections, we have added relevant provisions of The Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Cyber Law Offenders, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Sand Offenders, Sexual Offenders, Slum Grabbers and Video Pirates Act 1982,” he added.
On November 13, 2021, the Coimbatore police arrested Mithun Chakravarthy who taught at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, RS Puram, for allegedly sexually assaulting and harassing a Class 12 teen girl for six months. The incident came to light after the young woman took her life on November 11. Her friends and family members also alleged that Mithun had assaulted and harassed her. Following his arrest and further investigation, the police recovered WhatsApp chats and audio messages between him and the deceased girl.
A six-minute audio message (a recording of a call) between Mithun and the student prior to her death was also leaked. In the recording, the voice that purportedly belongs to the accused teacher is heard talking about the sexual assault. The person also goes on to emotionally black mail and gaslight the student. He refers to the sexual assault by stating that it “was the only slip up he has ever had.” “I have eight years of experience teaching and in all these years, this has never happened. Ask your seniors (if I have misbehaved). The only time I slipped was in your case. It was purely accidental. It will not happen again,” the voice of the man is heard stating in the audio clip.
According to the student’s close friend, the accused teacher had befriended the deceased student over phone chats and dropped her home once. She further alleged that the way the accused spoke to the girl was inappropriate. “He sexually assaulted her once in school and harassed her many times. His wife teaches in the same school, she and the principal knew about all this, but they did nothing,” the friend alleged.
“She was very distressed. She became scared of men in general. She was unable to forget the incident. She kept saying she felt disgusted,” said her friend. He alleged that the school had promised the student that they would dismiss the teacher, but did not, initially.
The girl had also purportedly written a suicide note where she refers to the accused teacher and two others.
The principal of the school Meera Jackson was also arrested in the case and charged under various sections of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act 2012 on November 15, 2021.