Rustom Kerawalla, the chairman and founder president of the school in Marathahalli, Bangalore, where a six-year-old girl was raped allegedly by a skating instructor early this month, was arrested by Bangalore Police on Tuesday night. On Wednesday night, Mr. Kerawalla was granted conditional bail by the second additional sessions court, Bangalore Rural, on the condition that he would not tamper with evidence and mark his presence before the investigating officer at Varthur police station every alternate day.
Mr. Kerawalla was arrested at Daman. He has been charged under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code, Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi announced on Wednesday.
“He has been booked under Section 23 of JJ Act for cruelty to the child, Section 21 of the POCSO Act for not reporting the rape to the police, and Section 201 of the IPC for destroying evidence,” Mr. Reddi said. He, however, refused to elaborate on the details of the offences committed by Kerawalla, citing that the matter is under investigation. “We are also probing the possible involvement of other staff members,” he said.
Clarifying that there has been no delay in the arrest, a senior police officer, who is part of the investigation, said the prime concern of the police was to identify the perpetrator of the crime and arrest him. “After the arrest of skating instructor Mustafa, and his subsequent questioning, negligence on the part of the school management was revealed. After analysing the evidence and confession of the accused, we decided to book the institution. A police team went to Daman and secured his arrest,” the official said. Since Mr. Kerawalla heads the institution, he has been held responsible, he added.