KANNUR: In a major breakthrough in Palathayi sexual abuse case in which a 10-year-old girl of Palathayi UP School, near Panur, was allegedly sexually abused by her school teacher, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has claimed to have found forensic evidence to prove that the child was sexually abused.
The forensic examination of blood sample collected from the floor tiles inside the teachers’ wash room on the school premises where she was allegedly abused, had confirmed that the sample matched with that of the girl. As per the girl’s revised statement, it was inside this bathroom that she was sexually abused by the teacher. Official sources said the SIT would submit a report before the Thalassery POCSO court in this regard.
It was in December 2020 that the new SIT led by DySP T K Rathnakumar collected blood-stained tile from the teachers’ wash room for forensic examination. Though the victim had earlier given a statement that the abuse took place inside the students’ wash room, in her second statement, the victim reportedly said that abuse took place not in the students’ wash room but in the toilet used by teachers.
The case in which the accused teacher identified as Kuniyil Padmarajan, 45, who is also a local BJP leader, created a controversy after a Crime Branch team led by IG S Sreejith found no evidence against the school teacher after the incident came to light in March 2020. After conducting a probe for nearly six months, the team cited inconsistencies in the statements of the victim and even subjected the victim to psychological assessment to ascertain whether the victim was making up a story.