Karnataka HC refuses to quash POCSO case against govt. school teacher

High Court refuses to quash case against teacher with 5 phones capturing images of girls changing dress.

Wondering what a government school teacher was doing with five mobile phones, the High Court of Karnataka has refused to quash a criminal case registered against a 46-year-old drawing teacher of a residential school run by the Social Welfare Department for allegedly capturing images and videos of girls when they were changing dress.

“What is shocking is that the petitioner has five mobile phones of different brands. All the mobile phones are seized and sent to FSL. Each of the mobile phones has close to 1,000 images and several hundred videos. The petitioner is a drawing teacher. Why he is in possession of five mobile phones, and what are the videos and pictures therein, are all a matter of investigation,” the court observed.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while dismissing the petition filed by Muniyappa, who has been booked under the provision of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

“The very fact that he is a drawing teacher in the residential school and holds five mobile devices is inexplicable, which can be thrashed out only in an investigation or a full-blown trial. Each of the mobile phones has a secure digital (SD) card, which again has a lot of material according to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory report,” the court noted.

The petitioner had claimed that he was falsely implicated based on some reports by a local television channel, and the word “changing dresses” was added in the complaint to wreak vengeance against the petitioner as he had complained to the authorities about the alleged use of children to clean water and sewerage tanks of the school.

Observing that there are prima facie ingredients to attract provisions of the PCOSO Act, the Court said that the petitioner has to come out clean in a full-blown trial, as intervening at this juncture would be putting a premium on the alleged illegal activities that are horrendous and indecorous on the part of the petitioner being a teacher.