Bengaluru: The police investigating the rape of a six-year-old girl in Cambridge School, Indiranagar have cracked down on the management for its negligence and have arrested the director and principal of the school.
The Jeeven Bhima Nagar police, who had summoned the members of the management and the principal on Saturday, arrested the director Pramod Arya and Vyjayanti, the principal, in the evening.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Alok Kumar said that the duo were held on charges of negligence.
Parents of the victim visited the school around 3.45 pm on Saturday, expecting to meet the school management. But the victim’s uncle said that the school authorities did not hear them out when they came to the school on October 29 after learning about the incident.
“We came on Wednesday to report the matter to the school management. We were made to wait for more than two hours and none of the staff members turned up to hear us. When we finally met the principal and informed her about the incident, she said that the incident had not taken place on the school premises.”
Earlier in the day, the members of the management, including the vice-president, secretary, principal and others, were summoned to appear before the police.
They came to the police station around 1.30 pm and they were questioned by a team of police officers headed by ACP Halasur sub-division B.G. Manjunath. They were grilled for over four hours and finally the police arrested the director and the principal.
Meanwhile, DCP (Crime) Abhishek Goyal, BEO Ramesh and other officers visited the school. The police questioned several staff of the school and gathered information.
The protests continued even on Saturday and around 50 people gathered in front of the school. Sharada, secretary, Akhila Bharatha Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane, said the police, government and the education department should all be blamed equally for the incident.
“We want immediate action against the school authorities and the police have to act against the culprits without any delay.” Members of other organisations, including Auto Rickshaw Drivers’ Union and Democratic Youth Federation of India, also joined the protest.
‘Principal said incident took place elsewhere’
Parents of the six-year-old victim visited the school around 3.45 pm on Saturday, expecting to meet the school management. But none from the school staff nor the members of the management met them and addressed their issues.
The girl’s father said, “We have come here to know what the aayahs were doing when the incident took place? We expect the principal or the management to answer this. But none of them are meeting us.”
The victim’s uncle said that the school authorities were not willing to hear them out when they came to the school on October 29 after learning about the incident. “We came on Wednesday to report the matter to the school management.
We were made to wait for more than two hours and none of the staff members turned up to hear us. When we finally met the principal and informed her about the incident, she casually said that the incident had not taken place on the school premises and it might have occurred somewhere else,” he alleged.
The victim’s mother said, “On Tuesday, I noticed bruises on my daughter’s body and mistook them for mosquito bites. She was normal, had dinner and slept that day. The next day when she returned from the school, she was crying inconsolably and complained of stomachache. She was taken to a hospital, where the doctor confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted.”
Orhcids holds meeting with parents
The management of Orchids School, where a three-year-old girl was raped, held informal talks with the parents of schoolchildren on Saturday.
The state government had directed the school not to hold classes for pre-nursery, K1, K2, STD VI and VII students as the school does not have recognition from the government.
One of the parents told Deccan Chronicle that the meeting focused on restarting classes for all students. “We want the school to restart classes for all students immediately. The future of our children is our main concern," he said.
