Rashmi Belur By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: Investigation into the alleged sexual assault of an over three-year-old girl at a prominent pre-school in the city has revealed shocking details of its functioning.

The staff at the school would allegedly send naughty children to the supervisor Manjunath, accused in the case, to discipline them. Ironically, Manjunath was in charge of CCTV maintenance.

More parents have now come forward to file a complaint against the school. On Tuesday, many of them even took their wards for medical examination. Details have emerged of how some teachers and caretakers would allegedly scare children, who cried in class or refused to eat, by sending them to Manjunath.

Some children revealed this to parents. “If we don’t listen to teacher in the class or refuse to eat food in daycare or cry, they sent us to Manju bhaiyya and we are all scared of him.” Some children Express spoke to said he was bad and they didn’t like to go to him.

Manjunath, 32, was the only male non-teaching staff and also in-charge of maintenance of CCTV installed in the school and daycare. “We raised objection when the principal said there was no evidence of such incidents in CCTV footage. When the person who commits the crime is in charge of CCTV, how can he leave evidence?” a parent asked.

A few parents recalled they had even ignored when their children complained about Manjunath earlier. Manjunath used to be in school from 9 am to 6 pm and was also in-charge of transportation service at the school.

Many parents said, “We also got to know from our children that the ayahs at the daycare used to change kids’ dress in his presence.” One parent said, “After this incident I inquired with my daughter and she said he used to be in daycare during the time and that for some of them he only used to change their dress.”