Jodhpur sexual assault: 5 girls booked for ‘sexually abusing’ classmate at private school
17-yr-old accuses classmates of ragging her in toilet, files police complaint; school denies charge.
The Jodhpur school administration, however, denied the charges levelled by the student.(Source: Representational image)
Five students of a private girls’ school in Jodhpur have been booked for stripping and sexually assaulting their new classmate following a police complaint filed by the victim Wednesday. All six girls are students of Class XI at the Sohanlal Manihar senior secondary school.
The 17-year-old victim has accused her classmates of ragging her in the school toilet during the recess on her first day to school last week.
According to the victim, one of the girls allegedly cornered her in the toilet on Friday and started bullying her. When she resisted, the girl called four of her friends and they allegedly forced the victim into one of the toilet partitions and locked the door.
The girls then allegedly forced her to strip, assaulted and molested her.
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After the school administration allegedly did not act on her complaint, made the next day, the victim approached police.
“We have registered an FIR under Sections 7/8, 11/12 (against the girls) and under Sections 19/21 (against the school administration) of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO),” Jodhpur police commissioner Ashok Rathore told The Indian Express.
“The school authorities should have reported the matter to us immediately. We will be recording the girls’ statement under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate Friday,” he added.
Section 7 under POCSO defines sexual assault as inappropriate touching of genitals with sexual intent, while Section 8 prescribes a prison term of three to five years for such an assault.
Section 11 and 12 cover forced stripping under sexual harassment, including making “a child exhibit his body”, and prescribes a prison term of three years.
Sections 19 and 21 mandate reporting of perceived sexual offences against children to the police, failing which would attract a prison term of six months or a fine or both.
The school administration, however, denied the charges levelled by the student.
“It seems strange because she attended the remaining four periods after the alleged incident. Next day, she came with her parents at 12:30pm to complain. We immediately formed a committee of three female teachers to look into it,” school principal Vidyarthi Kalla said.
“Later, we got her parents to talk to the parents of the two other girls she has accused. But she (victim) did not calm down,” he said.
The principal said the school had over 1,600 students and the area around the bathroom is always crowded.
“There is no way such a thing can happen there. We have been getting calls from other parents saying they trust the school and are with us,” he added.
On Thursday, the victim wrote to state education minister Vasudev Devnani, saying the incident had shaken her faith in the schooling system and had almost driven her to suicide. She said she wanted the minister and the chief minister to intervene so that no other girl faces such problems.
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