An employee of a private school in Bengaluru has been accused of molesting children.
Six more cases of child sexual abuse have been filed against Manjunath, the employee of a private school in Bengaluru. The first police case against the 31-year-old was filed last week, after the parents of a child accused him of molesting their child. But now, more and more parents say they have found out why their child did not want to go to school. The children -- girls and boys - are barely more than toddlers.
"My daughter was crying for three weeks and pleading with us not to send her to the school," said a father. It took them some time to understand the reason. "She said 'Bhaiyya touches me'. We thought she meant other children... small children are playful," he said.
The couple was horrified when the child explained that she had pain in her private parts. They stood at the school gates and shared their story. "More than 10, 12 parents came back and said their children were also going through it. And they confirmed it was Manju Bhaiyya," the child's mother said.
One father said he was tortured by the thought that he had been forcing his child to go to school and face such abuse.
The mother of a two-and-a-half year boy told NDTV, "For nearly a month, he has been complaining of a pain in his bottom. We gave him deworming medicine..."
Manjunath has been arrested and charged under POCSO, the law that deals with sexual offences against children. The school administrators have also been charged with not complying with safety regulations.
After the agitated parents met the city police chief, Praveen Sood told NDTV that the school had not been complying with the safety regulations ordered by the police department following a series of alleged sexual assaults two years ago. The school is now closed and the arrested administrators are out on bail.
The parents, however, are not ready to let the matter drop. They said they were consulting lawyers and want further action against the school. "He has assured us....But only action will give us any kind of hope," said the father of one of the children.