A 45-year-old teacher of a government school was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting girl students for more than four months.

The accused R Sridhar from Anna Nagar is a chemistry teacher at a government school in Chennai, said the police. He was arrested following a complaint from a member of the District Child Welfare Committee.

"The teacher had indulged in sexual assault by way of inappropriate touches. He also sent obscene messages to the girls, along with double entendre messages on WhatsApp to a few girls," said a senior police officer.

The alleged sexual assaults began in March and he had threatened the girls not to disclose the matter to anyone, said police sources. Recently, the girls reported the matter to a woman teacher at the school, who in turn informed the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) member. Following a thorough inquiry by CWC member, a complaint was forwarded along with an audio file and WhatsApp chats to the All-women Police.

Based on the complaint, he was booked under POCSO Act sections 10 (Punishment for aggravated sexual assault) read with 9 (Aggravated sexual assault), 21 (Punishment for failure to report or record a case) and 506 (Punishment for Criminal Intimidation) of IPC. He was remanded to judicial custody after being produced in court, said police.