Students of deaf and mute school to be shifted to other schools

25.207.2017

Coimbatore: Following a petition from parents, the Coimbatore district collector TN Hariharan on Monday directed the transfer of students from Tirupur Deaf School to Government Deaf and Mute School and Infant Jesus School for Deaf here. The order comes after the correspondent of Tirupur Deaf School was arrested in May this year for sexually harassing girl students of the school.

In May, the Karumathampatty police arrested correspondent of Tirupur Deaf School, K Murugasamy, 57, one of the trustees of the school M Chitradevi, 40, warden of the school S Parimala, 28, a worker of a lathe shop A Babu, 35, and his wife B Revathi, 30. Later, the office-in-charge C Rani was arrested.

A widower, Murugasamy himself is a deaf and mute. According to the petition filed by a parent, Arun Gandhi, Murugasamy had sexually harassed 18 girl students of the school. He had been running the school for the past nine years.

There were 195 students in the school, according to the police complaint. In the complaint, it was alleged that two students were sexually harassed by Murugasamy and others in 2012 and 2013. One of the complainants said Murugasamy forced her to have alcohol and raped her after which she became pregnant. Following this, Chitradevi, Rani and Parimala took her to a private hospital and aborted her child. Murugasamy was running similar schools in Sulur and Kangeyam.