K’taka HC refuses to quash POCSO case against teacher accused of shaming girl student

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has refused to quash a case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) against a female teacher who is accused of physically shaming a 5-year-old girl student in front of the class by pulling down her pants.

Hearing a petition filed by the accused teacher, a single division bench headed by Justice M. Nagaprasanna in his verdict observed that making a child exhibit his body to others amounts to sexual harassment.

Further, it mentioned that traumatizing a child, particularly the ones at an impressionable age tends to have a devastating psychological impact on them and thus they can develop emotional and behavioral problems.

Case details:

The parents of the victim had filed the case against the 41-year-old teacher with Halasuru police accusing her of causing embarrassment to their daughter who was studying in nursery class by pulling down her pants and making her stand in that state before other students. The incident happened in 2017.

In the complaint, the parents further charged that the accused teacher had also threatened the child that she would be locked up in a dark room where a ferocious dog was waiting for her.

The 5-year-old child narrated this to her parents, who lodged a criminal complaint against the teacher with Halasuru police in 2017.

Considering the sensitivity of the case, the High Court bench refused to quash the criminal proceedings against the teacher.

 

 

With IANS inputs