An Indian maths tutor who was convicted of sexually assaulting a student has been jailed for continuing to teach dozens of children in Melbourne.
Damodar Kodavaluru, 58, was put on the Sex Offenders Register after his conviction, but kept running his Smart Tutoring Centre from his Dandenong home, and tutored 64 different students as young as seven between 2022 and 2025 despite his Working With Children Check being revoked.
Kodavaluru was arrested in December last year, and on Monday pleaded guilty in Dandenong Magistrates Court to contravening a Community Corrections Order and 76 counts of failing to comply with reporting obligations. He was not accused of committing any sexual offences.
Magistrate Tim Schocker sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment with a nine-month non-parole period and 116 days already served, and fined him $2,500 while saying Kodavaluru “knew very well” he was not permitted to run his Smart Tutoring Centre business, The Bass Coast News reported.
The magistrate said it was “quite astonishing” that Kodavaluru continued to work with children, and noted he went “as far as actively hiding this from the authorities”.
The court heard Kodavaluru, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old in 2019, was caught when Border Force officers inspected his phone when he returned from an overseas holiday, and found messages showing he was organising tutoring and was in direct contact with children about maths problems.
He had earlier told police he was unemployed and had no contact with children, but when arrested admitted tutoring kids in person until about two months prior.
Kodavaluru also failed to tell police about buying a car, owning the tutoring property, and having Facebook, Instagram, Microsoft Teams and email accounts.
His defence lawyer Heather Anderson argued Kodavaluru “didn’t appreciate the seriousness of what he was doing” and told the court it was “justified in his mind by the need to work to support his family”.
Prosecutors submitted that the offending with have impacted the children’s parents, who would have been “horrified to learn that their children had been tutored by a registered sex offender”.
“It’s not outlandish to suggest that they may be blaming themselves for allowing their children to come into contact with a registered sex offender, knowing that the children are vulnerable,” they said.
After his arrest, a mother whose child was tutored by Kodavaluru for years told the Herald Sun learning about the charges was “one of the worst days of my life”.
“All sorts of horrible thoughts went through my head. As a parent you feel that you’ve let your child down. You feel guilty as well … I assumed the necessary checks had been done,” she said.
She also claimed Kodavaluru provided an elaborate story for why he didn’t have a Working with Children Check, telling her it was because he had been charged for road rage.
Header image: Damodar Kodavaluru (Facebook).
