It was a farewell post that led to arrest of abusive teacher in Kerala

Malappuram: A retired teacher in Kerala's Malappuram district, who has been accused of abusing girl students, has reportedly been arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act.

The students who undergone sexual abuse when they were in the junior classes came out with complaints in response to KV Sasikumar's farewell post on Facebook, in which he shared the memories of his 38-year-long being a teacher at a Government-aided Girls High School in Malappuram.

His Facebook wall has since been inundated with complaints by students who said they also experienced similar abuse, prompting the alumni association of the school to report the incidents to police.

The accused teacher was a councillor and a member of state ruling party, CPI(M). Sasikumar was a teacher at the school for over three decades. Representing the CPI(M), he had also been councillor in his municipally for three times.

Soon after the allegations came to surface on social media and in the public, Sasikumar went hiding before being arrested for the crime and resigned from the post of councillor as directed by the party. The CPI(M) has also informed the teacher's suspension from the party.

All of it once again began being talked when Beena Pillai, an alumnus of the school and an advocate by profession, wrote a piece on Facebook, narrating several incidents of such abuses by him and calling out the teachers who remained impassive to the complaints of the students who shared the incidents with them.

Beena and Mini Sakeer, a former student, also faced the press and accused Sasiskumar of committing the sexual crimes with several hundred students during his three decades long tenure. They also alleged that there was no action on a complaint it had filed to the school Ethics Committee in 2019.

The teachers with whom the students shared the sexual incidents have also been accused of being imbecile for asking students aged 9 to 12 years not to be coquettish with the accused teacher instead of reporting to the authorities.

Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty said his department would probe whether there had been any lapse on the part of the school management in reporting the alleged abuse.

The state's Director-General of Education Jeevan Babu has been directed to submit a report, Sivankutty said.