Hyderabad:
The principal’s driver has been arrested for alleged sexual assault on a four-year-old kindergarten student at DAV Public School in Hyderabad’s upscale Banjara Hills area. Parents of the girls, and of other students, gathered to protest and also beat up the driver after the girl finally opened up to her mother about the assault that had been going on for two months.
The girl’s parents had noticed a change in her behaviour — she would remain unusually quiet, depressed, and be found crying. They finally found out about the assault after the mother spoke with her. She was raped in a digital classroom or lab near the principal’s chambers on Monday, said news reports.
She pointed towards the driver when the parents went with her to school on Tuesday, after which the parents filed a complaint and the man was arrested the same day. The girl was sent to a counselling centre, where she shared more details, and was taken home later.
A case under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC and the POCSO Act has been registered.
A senior police official said the driver also handled odd jobs such as maintaining the school laboratories and running errands for the staff members, thus coming in contact with students inside the campus, as per a report in The New Indian Express. It further said police are checking if he had harassed or abused other students.
In another case of sexual assault at school, in Delhi, that came to light two weeks ago, an 11-year-old student was allegedly gangraped by two seniors inside the washroom of a Kendriya Vidyalaya in the national capital, following which a case has been registered.
The alleged incident took place in July but the victim approached the police after the matter was highlighted by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). The DCW, which termed the incident as a “serious matter”, issued a notice to Delhi Police and the school principal on the issue.
The school authorities have been asked to inform why the incident was allegedly not reported to the police by them. Officials of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) maintained that the incident was not reported to the principal by the victim or her parents, and has only come to light following police investigation.
