Malappuram: The education department has given another chance to teach school students for a teacher who has been arrested three times in a POCSO case in ten years. There is currently no system to permanently remove those accused of sexual harassment from teaching. The Child Line counselor told Manorama News that the accused, who is a teacher, had to be a powerless witness to influence victims to change their statements.
In 2012, Pulikathodithazham Ashraf, a teacher who molested 56 children in the limits of Parappanangadi police station, was arrested again in 2019 for a similar crime in another government school in the limits of Karipur station. He was arrested for the third time in 2021 in Tanur with a complaint of student harassment. The first case was dismissed due to inconsistencies in the statements of the minor complainants. The child line counselor testified that the child victims were also taken to court during the trial by the teacher’s people.
Summary in English: The education department has no standing punishment against teachers guilty of Pocso