An elderly Catholic priest, who worked as a correspondent of a school in Coimbatore, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly sexually harassing students of the institution.
The priest, Maria Antony Raj, was reported to be around 60 years of age. Raj had been the correspondent of the St Mary's High School in the Gandhipuram area of Coimbatore for over a year.
The Hindu reported Raj allegedly forced "at least" five girls of the school to open lewd content on his mobile phone on multiple occasions. NDTV reported that the affected children were students of class 9.
The children informed their parents earlier this week, who in turn sought action against Raj from the principal. However, the school, which is run by the Coimbatore Diocese of the Catholic Church, allegedly did not act.
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As a result, parents of schoolchildren complained to police and laid siege to the institution on Thursday. The police registered a case under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) against Raj and arrested him. According to NDTV, Raj claimed he had only asked the students to install a mobile app and some "pornographic" content came as pop-ups on the screen.
Raj has been remanded to judicial custody and police are investigating whether similar incidents had occurred in the school before. A.C. Anitha, the school headmistress, told Times of India Raj was retired and had been removed from his post of correspondent.
