Kerala - Alappuzha

Collector orders probe into molestation case

ALAPPUZHA: District Collector V.K. Balakrishnan has issued directions to the Superintendent of Police and the Deputy Director of Education for a comprehensive inquiry into the molestation case reported from Naluchira Government Upper Primary School, Thottapally.

Mr. Balakrishnan issued the directions following a letter from Cooperation and Coir Minister G. Sudhakaran, who pointed out that the issue had serious social dimensions and a speedy, comprehensive inquiry was necessary.

In the meanwhile, the Ambalappuzha police are learnt to have found that the kingpin of the racket, S. Biju, 39, hailed from Kuzhipally at Munambam in Ernakulam. Biju is said to have left his home more than a year ago.

The police, who also questioned the headmaster of the school, are also checking out reports that Biju had approached several other schools here with ‘acting offers’ for students in his ‘documentary.’

It is also learnt that he had tried similar tricks in a school in Palakkad.

Mr. Sudhakaran, on the other hand, has said that the headmaster of the school, if found guilty of flouting laws, should be punished. Pointing out that no permission was taken from the authorities concerned for allowing shooting on the school premises, Mr. Sudhakaran said it did not matter which organisation or trade union the headmaster was attached to. He was responding to reports that the headmaster was the member of a pro-Left organisation.

The district committee of the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) has announced that it will take out a march to the Ambalappuzha police station on Monday demanding the arrest of the headmaster and others involved in the racket, KSU State president Hibi Eden said.

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