Chennai school correspondent booked under SC/ST Act for hurling casteist abuse at teacher

CHENNAI: A correspondent of a school in Erukanchery near Kodungaiyur, Chennai, was booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, based on a teacher's complaint that he had hurled casteist abuses at her.

The complainant, T Tamilselvi (40), a resident of Erukanchery, was working as a Tamil teacher at the Don Bosco Matriculation School in Teacher's Colony for the past 15 years.

According to the teacher, in the first week of April, the correspondent, Father Benjamin Soosai had allegedly told her that he was planning to dismiss her as there were too many teachers. When Tamilselvi sought a reason, he had allegedly hurled casteist remarks at her.

Subsequently, Tamilselvi filed a complaint with the NCSC (National Commission for Scheduled Castes) and also with the state school education department.

On May 10, a meeting was convened with all teachers at the school where the correspondent allegedly hurled abuses at Tamilselvi again in front of the others, and asked her to not report to work from the following day.

Based on a direction from the NCSC to the city police, Kodungaiyur Police registered a case under sections of the SC/ST (PoA) Act and section 294 (b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (uttering obscene words) and are investigating the matter.