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    Students refuse to accept TC from Kovai special school

    More than 50 differently-abled students and their parents staged a protest in front of a special school, and refused to accept transfer certificate (TC), in the wake of rape charges against the person running the school that surfaced in May this year.

    Students refuse to accept TC from Kovai special school
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    Students stage a protest in front of the special school

    Coimbatore

    The closure notice was issued by the Commissioner for Welfare of Differently Abled on June 16, after which the school had started issuing transfer certificates to nearly 110 students. 

    The issue came to light on May 9, when a former student of the school lodged a complaint with the Karumathampatty police alleging that she was raped more than once by the secretary of the school K Murugasamy, who is also a differently abled person, when she studied there till 2012. 

    She alleged that she became pregnant and some people associated with the school had helped him in aborting the foetus and silenced the issue. Subsequently, another victim lodged a similar complaint, following which Murugasamy and his accomplices M Chitradevi of Tirupur, Rani alias Chinna Rani of Coimbatore, S Pramila of Tirupur, B Revathi and her husband A Babu of Pollachi were booked under various sections of The Indian Penal Code. 

    Most of them were arrested and lodged in jail. These shocking incidents resulted in the closure order being issued against the school.  The district administration also initiated steps to implement the order and help the students get admitted in other special schools. 

    Meanwhile, over 50 hearing and speech impaired students of the school at Kothapalayam near Somanur and their parents said that there were no such special schools in the vicinity and that it would be difficult for them to continue studies in faraway places. 

    Top officials from the district administration and the police were holding talks with the school management and protesting parents to expedite the process of issuing transfer certificates and getting the children admitted in other government and special schools of their choice. 

    The talks went on till the late hours of Wednesday. On the other hand, activists fighting for the rights of differently abled persons have questioned the Coimbatore district police for not registering a case against the accused under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Disability rights alliance’s member Smitha Sadasivan, who raised this point, also alleged that the police had not booked the doctor who aborted the victim.

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