Kannur: What began as a school tour to celebrate the higher secondary class ended in a violent assault on three boys who raised allegations of sexual harassment against a trainee teacher during the trip.

Kannur's Pazhayangadi police booked Lijo John, who accompanied the 80-odd Class 12 students of Payyannur Government Boys Higher Secondary School on a four-day tour to Adimali, for allegedly calling in three men and brutally assaulting the boys on the day they returned.

To be sure, Lijo was not even a teacher at the school and had come in as a trainee as part of his BEd course six months ago. He was called in at the last minute because the teacher assigned for the school tour had election duty.

According to the students, on December 8, the last night of the tour, they went to a hotel for a DJ party. At the dance floor, the students alleged that Lijo misbehaved with two female students.

When the girls informed the boys about the incident outside the hotel, the three boys publicly confronted Lijo. “We were a bit aggressive, but nothing untoward happened because the other students held us back,” said the boy on whose complaint the FIR was registered.

But when other teachers took up the matter, the two girls said they might have misunderstood what had happened. With that denial, the tone shifted.

According to the students, Lijo demanded a public apology for humiliating him, or else he threatened to file a police complaint against them. “I got scared of a police case and literally fell at his feet and apologised,” said the student quoted above. “We thought the matter had ended there.”

In the morning of December 9 (Tuesday), the students reached home. “My son immediately went to sleep,” said Jafar T C, the father of another student who was assaulted.

In the evening, Lijo John called the complainant and asked him to come to Pazhayangadi “talk things over” -- over coffee. He asked him to bring the other two students along.

The three boys -- residents of Trikaripur and Kavvayi (near Payyannur) -- reached Pazhayangadi around 6.30 pm.  Lijo John arrived on a scooter. He took one of them -- the most outspoken during the altercation -- on his scooter. He promised to come for the other two later.

The student was taken to Vadikkal riverside at Pazhayangadi, where three other men were waiting. The 17-year-old boy was beaten with sticks, rods, kicked and punched. “When there was a delay in picking us up, I called my friend. He said he was fine, and the teacher was coming to pick us up. They made him say that,” said the complainant.

Soon after, Lijo John arrived, took the remaining two boys to the river, and said. According to the FIR, the men verbally abused them, slapped them, kicked Faras in the abdomen, and beat all three with sticks and rods. “I vomited when he kicked my abdomen,” said the complainant.  “They assaulted us for one hour till 7.30 pm,” he said.

Around 7 pm, Jafar said he called his son, who said he was at Pazhayangadi to return the clothes of his friend. “I told him he could have returned it the next day,” he said.

Jafar said his son returned home at 10 pm. “I was furious and scolded him a lot. But he did not reveal anything. He was scared of me,” said the father.

Later, Jafar learned that Lijo John had allegedly threatened the boys with more beatings if they told their parents. “He even threatened to burn down my footwear shop in Payyannur if my son told me about the assault,” said Jafar. “In hindsight,” Jafar said, “I feel fortunate the boy did not take any extreme step.”

Only in the evening of December 10 did the parents of one of the boys notice welts and injury marks on his body. When confronted, he broke down.

The parents immediately called one another and admitted all three boys to a private hospital in Trikaripur that night.

On December 11, the hospital informed the Chandera police in Kasaragod about the assault. No officer came to record the students’ statements.

On December 13 -- election counting day -- the families went to the Chandera police station seeking an explanation. They were told the police were busy with election duty and that the Pazhayangadi police would contact them.

The same day, Kasaragod MLA N A Nellikkunnu visited the hospital and called a senior police officer, asking why no FIR had been registered, said Jafar. 

On December 14, Pazhayangadi police contacted one of the boys and, based on his statement, registered an FIR. Lijo John has been charged with wrongful restraint, causing hurt with dangerous weapons, and using obscene words under Sections 126 (2), 118(1), 296 (b) and 3 (5) of BNS. Lijo John had turned off his phone and was not reachable.

Jafar said Lijo John had called him several times, asking him not to press charges. “Later, his parents and sister too came to the hospital and met my son and me,” he said. After that, his mother would call him often. “Yesterday, I told her the incident had hurt my son and me a lot, and that we would only take the legal route. Then I blocked her number,” Jafar said. “Her calls were painful, for her and for me.”