POCSO case registered against four staffers of Isha Foundation, former student

FIR filed against Isha Foundation staff for POCSO Act violations, including negligence in sexual assault case, Coimbatore.

The police has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against four staffers of the Isha Foundation, Coimbatore, and a former student of a school run by the foundation for offences under different Sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code.

While the former student has been named first accused, the FIR named hostel warden Nishanth Kumar, three others, namely Preethi Kumar, Prakash Somayaji and Swami Vibu as the accused in the case for offences under Sections 9 (l), 10, 21 (2) of POCSO Act and 342 of the IPC.

The case relates to alleged sexual assault by the accused student on another student and the alleged negligence from the part of the remaining accused between 2017 to 2019.

The FIR was registered at the All Women Police Station, Perur, in Coimbatore rural on January 31 based on a complaint lodged by the survivor boy’s mother.

“Though the FIR was registered on January 31, the police gave us a copy of the document only on March 28. With the police delaying providing us the FIR copy, we submitted before a magistrate during the recording of a statement that the document was not shared by the police. The magistrate directed the police to provide us a copy, following which we got it”, said the complainant to The Hindu over the phone.

The complainant has alleged that her son was molested and harassed at the school run by the foundation during 2017-2019 on many occasions by the fellow student.

Though the affected boy had complained to his house parents (in home school) Nishant Kumar and Preeti kumar, the principal of the school Prakash Somayaji and the general coordinator Swami Vibhu, he was ordered not to tell his parents about the incident, said the FIR.