No parent will allege kid has been abused sans reason: HC

BENGALURU: No parent will without any rhyme or reason register a complaint that her child has been sexually abused, the Karnataka high court observed in a recent order while refusing to quash proceedings against a physical education teacher from NR Pura in Chikkamagaluru.
The petitioner had challenged FIRs registered against him for offences under Section 354A of the Indian Penal Code and under provisions of the Protection of
Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 for inappropriately touching girl students. Challenging these FIRs, the petitioner contended that all cases were about asingle incident.
He claimed that out of spite or ill-will by people inimical to him in the institution had instigated complaints by parents.
Justice M Nagaprasan-na termed as preposterous the spite/ ill-will theory.
“No parent would come forward and without any rhyme or reason register a complaint against the petitioner, that too alleging that her child has been sexually abused. It is too far-fetched for this court, at this juncture, to even consider the submission of the counsel for the petitioner. Spite or illwill against him by other teachers of the institution cannot mean that those who are inimical towards the petitioner want to shoot him from the shoulder of a child of its parents. Such arguments cannot be accepted,” the judge observed while rejecting the petition.
Acolleague of the petitioner submitted a report against him, stating he be-haved in an uncivilised manner with girl students and had sexually harassed them. This report was submitted to the local Block Education Officer, who filed apolice complaint.
On learning about it, parents of students registered separate crimes on different dates against the petitioner which resulted in several FIRs.
All these matters are pending before a special court in Chikkamagaluru. However, declining to accept the contention, Justice Nagaprasanna pointed out that perusal of complaints revealed that incidents had not happened on single day but for the past one to three months and hence multiple registration of FIRs was necessitated, he added.