The Tiruppur District Police on Wednesday arrested the former headmistress of Government High School in Iduvai near Tiruppur, who was booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, for allegedly discriminating against Scheduled Caste (SC) students in December 2021.
The police said that Geetha (51) was booked by the Mangalam police under sections 3 (1) (r) (Whoever, not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view) and 3 (1) (s) (abuses any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe by caste name in any place within public view) of the SC/ST Act on December 24, 2021.
As the investigation led by the Deputy Superintendent of Police – Palladam was progressing, the accused had applied for anticipatory bail at the Madras High Court and was subsequently directed to approach the District Court in Tiruppur, the police said. On Wednesday, Principal District and Sessions Judge Swarnam J. Natarajan dismissed her petition seeking anticipatory bail. She was arrested on the court premises following the issue of an arrest warrant and was remanded in judicial custody at Coimbatore Central Prison in the evening, according to the police.
The accused woman was booked based on a complaint lodged by B. Saravanakumar, a member of the Vigilance and Monitoring Committee of the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, who alleged that she had verbally abused several SC girls studying in Classes IX and X using casteist slurs and allegedly forced them to clean the toilets in the school during her tenure as the headmistress. Prior to this on December 17, 2021, Chief Educational Officer for Tiruppur district R. Ramesh received a complaint from a group of Class IX and Class X students from the school, based on which he conducted an inquiry and placed Geetha under suspension till further notice.
