A pastor who molested a college girl was caught by her classmates while trying to escape, but police let him off after warning the students. In an intoxicated state, the pastor made obscene gestures toward the girl and molested her. He was booked after the victim filed a complaint.
Students of a CSI college in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, were eating at a hotel during the break. Spurgeon Samuel, a pastor from a nearby place, was also at the hotel. He molested the girl students sitting near his table and asked for their mobile numbers.
Later, when one of the girls went to wash her hands, he followed her, made obscene gestures, and molested her. The girl told her male classmates, who confronted the pastor about his disgusting behavior. But the pastor took his car and tried to escape. Students followed him in their vehicles and stopped his car.
They attacked his car and damaged the glass. However, police got a whiff of the incident as the students chased the pastor’s car for nearly 4km. Arriving at the spot, they warned the students, protected the pastor, and sent him off. The girl has filed a complaint against the pastor, and he has been booked under four sections for various offenses.
When issues of sexual abuse in Hindu-run schools emerged, every teacher working in the institution and the management were dragged through mud even before the accusations were proved. The media ran a smear campaign against the institutions, painting them as dens of sexual abuse.
The DMK government had booked one of the teachers, Rajagopal under the Goondas Act. The court quashed the detention for failure on part of authorities to serve the grounds of detention to the accused. His wife had filed a petition claiming that online classes were not conducted in the time period in which he was accused of sending lewd messages to girl students.
Sexual abusers of any kind from any background should be punished in the strictest possible means. But state agencies seem to have different standards for abusers from different backgrounds, especially different religions.
