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Seoul [South Korea], May 23 (ANI/Global Economic): K-pop rookie group LE SERRAFIM, which have faced a crisis due to member Kim Ga-ram's school violence scandal, have decided to promote as 5-members excluding her.
Their agency Source Music said on the fan community Weverse on the 20th, "After we discussed with Kim Ga-ram, she has decided to have a hiatus and focus on caring herself. LE SERRAFIM will perform as 5-member group for the time being until she returns the team after her recovery." There have been multiple allegations that Kim Ga-ram had committed school violence to the victim 'A' in 2018, when she was attending the middle school. The controversy has grown even more as the photo of the Notification School Violence Committee Results was released as evidence. In particular, as it was confirmed that the victim A's legal representative sent the related documents to HYBE (Source Music) on Apr 21, before LE SSERAFIM's debut, the agency's statement denying rumors and claiming that it is a "malicious slander" has come under fire. However, Source Music aggressively refuted allegations by claiming that Kim Ga-ram was the victim of school violence as well. Source Music issued an official statement and said, "The alleged victim A took photos of a friend taking her clothes off and posted them on her SNS. Kim Ga-ram and her friends were furious about this and complained, but there were no physical abuse." "A admitted her wrongdoings but was not punished at all," it said. "However, A submitted the Kim Ga-ram and her friends, who protested against A, to the School Violence Committee, and she transferred to another school." Source Music emphasized that there are lots of then-classmates who considers A's behavior as a problem, and there are also other third persons to testify for the incident. It also denied all allegations against Kim Ga-ram, including involuntary transfer, hitting classmate's skull with a pot and brick, going to school in a police car, engaging in a gang fight, and drinking and smoking under age. The agency claimed that Kim Ga-ram is the victim, saying, "Some classmates invited Kim Ga-ram to the group chat and assaulted her. When she exits the chat room, they invited her back and bullied her for not reading the text." "We have already begun to take legal actions against the rumors that we have evidences," the agency said. "We are continuing to collect evidence for other matters and will take additional legal actions." As the agency issued a statement a month after the allegations were first suggested, the controversy is expected to be continued. (ANI/Global Economic)
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