CHENNAI: The Special Court for POCSO cases on Tuesday granted the Chennai city police custody of G Rajagopalan, a teacher of the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School arrested on charges of sexual abuse, for three days. The court also ordered notice to the city police to respond to a plea on the bail application moved by the teacher.
According to the prosecution, several students of Class XI and XII and alumni alleged that the teacher sexually misbehaved with them. The accusations included actions like showing up for online classes with just a towel, touching students inappropriately, asking them out for movies, sharing pornographic links on groups and passing comments of sexual nature on female students, added the prosecution.
The prosecution also said Rajagopalan was arrested under POCSO Act Sections 11 (When a person commits sexual harassment on a child by uttering words, showcasing his body, etc.) and Section 12 (Whoever, commits sexual harassment upon a child shall be punished with imprisonment), under IPC Act 354 (a) (Sexual Harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) and 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any words, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object); under IT Act section 67 and 67(a) (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form).
The police sought five-day custody of the accused before Mohammed Farooq, special judge for exclusive trials of POCSO cases. However, the counsel for the accused denied all the allegations.
Meanwhile, G Rajagopalan also moved an application seeking bail before the court.
The court hearing the pleas ordered notice to the city police to respond to the bail application by June 3.
While the police had sought five days custody for interrogation, the court granted only three days. It ordered the police to produce the accused before the court on Friday at 3 pm.