Teacher arrested in Coimbatore for sexually assaulting teen, abetting suicide

COIMBATORE: A private school teacher in Coimbatore was arrested by the All Women Police Station (AWPS) under relevant sections of the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code for allegedly sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl and abetting her suicide.

According to police, the Class 12 girl died by suicide on Thursday evening when her parents were not at home.

The police said, the school teacher, identified as Mithun Chakravarthy, sexually assaulted her repeatedly inside the school six months ago and also warned of dire consequences if she revealed it to anybody. As the schools were closed owing to the pandemic, the teacher used to call the girl to the school pretending to help him in filing school copies from the record room and allegedly assaulted her.

The police also said four months ago, the girl had approached the principal and narrated the incident but the principal took the incident lightly and asked her to move on.

After the incident, the student was depressed and expressed unwillingness to go to school. Almost three-four months ago, she had told her parents that she did not want to go to the school and also requested to seek a transfer certificate.

However, when she along with her father went to get the certificate, the management and the principal took her to the psychiatrist for counselling.

She had joined another school two months ago.

However, the change of school and counselling from a psychiatrist did not seem to help the girl to come out of mental trauma.

On Thursday evening, when the girl was alone at home, she died by suicide. When her mother returned home in the evening, she found the girl hanging by the ceiling around 7 pm on Thursday.

On the basis of a complaint from the parents, the AWPS registered a case under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 9 (L) (committing sexual assault on the child more than once or repeatedly) read with 10 (punishment for aggravated sexual assault) of POCSO Act.