Bengaluru: School guard held for molesting child

Updated

Bengaluru, Aug 4 (IANS): A security guard of a private school here was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly molesting a three-year-old child, police said.

"We have arrested the 25-year-old accused under POCSO Act and section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after the victim identified him as 'school uncle' who molested her," Additional Commissioner of Police P. Harishekharan told reporters here.

The assault on the pre-nursery child came to light when she, on returning home from school Monday afternoon, complained to her parents that she was feeling a pain in the abdomen.

"When the victim's parents noticed swelling in her private parts, they took her to a private hospital where check-up and preliminary tests revealed she was violently assaulted by an elder person," Harishekharan said.

Police asked the parents to take their child to a state-run hospital for medical examination and an official report to register a case against the accused and the school, which failed to protect its ward in violation of the guidelines given by the state government to ensure the safety and security of students, especially girls.

"We are waiting for the medical report from the government (Bowring) hospital in the city, to ascertain if the child was sexually assaulted or molested to charge the accused and firmly act against the school," said Harishekharan.

According to preliminary investigation, the guard has been working in the school since four years and resides on the premises with his wife, who is an attendant in the same school.

"The victim's elder sister, who also studies in the same school, told her parents that the guard would often call her younger sister by name, fondle her and give chocolates to both of them," Harishekharan said.

As the family hails from Manipur, about 100 members of the North-East Association protested against the school and sought stringent action against its management for failing to ensure their ward's safety.

Earlier Report

Three-year-old sexually abused at school in Bengaluru

Parents from NE; Manipuri community claims police 'rude, indifferent'

Bengaluru, Aug 4 (DHNS): A three-year-old-girl, whose parents are from the Northeast, was sexually abused at her school in Indiranagar on Monday.

Around 12.30 pm, the girl’s mother went to the school to pick her and her elder sister who studies in the same institution. The three-year-old was crying inconsolably. After they reached home, the woman took the younger child to the toilet, as she used to do every day after bringing her home from school. But, on Monday, the child didn’t allow her mother to remove her clothes. But when she removed the child’s undergarments, she found that her private parts were swollen, a source close to the family told Deccan Herald.

The woman alerted her husband as well as people from her community from Manipur who live in Bengaluru. A community leader brought the matter to the notice of the police.

The Indiranagar police suspected the sexual assault took place inside the school campus. When asked repeatedly, the girl just said, “school, uncle,” a senior police officer said. The incident occurred around 12.30 pm and the child was brought to Bowring Hospital at 4.30 pm for medical examination. The medical report would be available on Tuesday, he said. “Investigation is going on. The child is not in a position to speak. It is not yet confirmed whether the sexual abuse as such had taken place. Only a medical report will establish that. We are ascertaining if the incident as such had happened, whether it had happened on the school premises or outside,” Additional Commissioner of Police (East) P Harishekharan said.

Police would check whether the school had followed child safety guidelines issued by the police commissioner about a year ago after a six-year-old girl was raped at a school in Marathahalli.

T Michael Lamjathang Haokip, president, Thadou Students’ Association in Bengaluru, claimed that Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) N Satheesh Kumar was “rude and non-cooperative” when he called him up. Even the Indiranagar police inspector Manjunath Shetty was non-cooperative, he said. Thadou is a tribe in Manipur. When the girl was brought to Bowring Hospital for medical examination, the inspector spoke rudely and said “such an incident can happen anywhere, even on the roadside,” drawing the ire of those who accompanied the girl’s family, Haokip said.