Man cooks up son's sexual abuse story

Bengaluru, Nov 24: A man, who decided to make a fast buck using his son as a bait, was arrested by the Sanjayanagar police on Monday.

Rajesh Karvi, 30, an executive with an advertisement agency, allegedly posed as a journalist and tried to extort money from a private school management claiming that his son was sexually abused at the institution.

A resident of Ramamandira Road, Kodigehalli Main Road, Karvi has been arrested for misusing the provisions of the Pocso Act, that deals with crimes against children, for wrongful gain and at the cost of his son’s reputation. His son studies in LKG at Radhakrishna Public School, Basaveshwaranagar Extension, Nagashettyhalli.

Karvi, who earlier worked with a Kannada magazine, had recently joined an advertisement agency.

Acquainted with a series of sexual assault cases involving children in school campuses in the City, and laws that safeguard children’s rights, he decided to cook up a story.

Karvi met the school headmistress Sunitha a week ago and claimed that a school staffer had sexually abused his son. A shocked Sunitha promised to look into the matter and conducted an internal inquiry. However, she quickly learnt that no such incident had ever taken place in the school premises, police said.

Karvi also contacted some office-bearers of the school management and claimed that his son had became a victim of sexual abuse by a school staffer. He frequently contacted the management and headmistress and threatened to leak the news to media.

The management, however, requested him not to indulge in such acts as it would tarnish the school’s reputation. However, Karvi continued to threaten the management.

He also alleged that the management had failed to implement children’s safety guidelines, issued by the City police commissioner recently.?The school management once again conducted an internal inquiry and established that no such incident had taken place in the school. The details regarding the day, date, place and timing of the act did not match with the actual facts, police said.

However, Karvi kept pressurising the management and demanded Rs two lakh to hush up the matter.?The management office-bearers became alert and directed the headmistress to approach Sanjaynagar police. After a bargain, Rajesh settled down for Rs 1.5 lakh, said the police who decided to trap him.

On Monday, Karvi went to the school in the afternoon to collect Rs 1.5 lakh. He was caught red-handed while receiving Rs 1 lakh from Sunitha, police said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Rajesh was a first-time offender. The police are also interrogating him to know whether he was involved in any other extortion case.