‘They were like my kids,I did not rape them’

Speaking to Newsline while being produced in court,he says,“I used to call them (the three kids) beta. Then how could I rape them? I did not do anything. It’s a conspiracy against me.”

Ratwal said that he had been dropping the girl and her brothers to school for the last three to four years and had a cordial relation with their mother. “She never complained about me to anyone or said anything to me. I used to pick them from home and drop them to school directly.” He also claimed that he did not know the four minors from the same school,who are accused of sexually assaulting the victims with him. “I don’t know who they are. I have never seen or heard about them.”

However,the police maintain that he had disclosed their names,but claimed to be clueless about their whereabouts.

When the girl was shifted to a different school six months back,her mother had retained Ratwal as the cab driver. “Her mother changed her school six months ago. I don’t know why,and she never told me,” he said.

Ratwal,a resident of Bapa Nagar,had reportedly got married eight years ago. However,his wife had left him soon after. When he was produced in court on Saturday,he did not have a lawyer to defend him.

Ratwal disclosed that he was being paid between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 for dropping the children to school,but maintained that he “had nothing to do with it (the offence)”. When asked why the mother was levelling such charges against Ratwal if he was innocent,he chose to remain silent.

Tis Hazari court Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Garg sent him to two days’ police custody as “the charges were of grevious nature,and custodial interrogation was required”.