Hyderabad: Local police in Narayanpet on Sunday arrested seven people, including two govt school teachers and one headmaster, after a video showing a teacher allegedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old student went viral. The incident reportedly took place at a govt school in Narayanpet. Police said that one of the teachers allegedly raped the survivor, who hails from a Scheduled Caste (SC) community. Investigators found that the offence occurred on March 7 inside the school premises. A 55-year-old male teacher reportedly misbehaved with the minor student in the computer lab, an act captured on CCTV. The prime accused was unaware that a colleague had replaced the defunct CCTV with a working camera to expose his actions.“The teacher who arranged the camera brought the issue to the notice of the school headmaster, who wanted to hush up the matter. The headmaster roped in four other private persons, including the husband of a local sarpanch, to settle the issue by talking to the survivor’s family and offering money,” district police said. As a result, the matter remained under wraps for several days, and the headmaster allegedly did not escalate the issue to the higher authorities in the education department.The video was later leaked from one of the accused and circulated on social media, bringing the scandal to public attention. After recording the survivor’s statement, investigators also found that the prime accused had raped the minor on earlier occasions by visiting her home multiple times. All the arrested individuals were sent to judicial remand and booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, along with charges related to evidence tampering.
