Five juveniles in conflict with law were apprehended and a warden was arrested on Monday in connection with the sexual assault on five students, aged between 10 and 12 years, at a Gurukul here.
A police team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Narayan Chand apprehended the five juveniles and arrested the gurukul’s warden late in the evening after an FIR was registered on Sunday.
The five students had accused their seniors of sodomy. The school principal and two staff members were also named in the FIR for not initiating action on the complaint of the victims.
The accused warden had worked in the Gurukul for two years before leaving the job to prepare for government services in 2014.
He joined the Gurukul again in June 2016 and was appointed chief warden last month.
Fresh injuries
A senior doctor at Civil Hospital told The Hindu that two of the victims had fresh injuries indicating an assault a few days ago, but the rest had no visible injuries since the assault allegedly took place a few months ago.
He, however, said sexual assault could not be ruled out in all five cases.
Earlier, agitated parents of the victims staged a protest outside the Gurukul seeking immediate arrest of the principal, the staff and the accused students.
‘Numbers could be more’
One of the parents, who is also the complainant in the case, said the number of students sodomised could be far more. He alleged that the Gurukul authorities had forced the students to keep mum.
Another parent claimed the seniors had admitted to having assaulted the children before the principal, but the staff tried to shield them.
The FIR stated that one of the victims, a Class VI student, was sodomised by three students of Classes VII, VIII and X this year and also the previous year. Three of the remaining victims are students of Class VII, while the fifth one studies in Class VI.
The accused are students of Classes VII, VIII, IX, X and XI.
The complainant said in the FIR that she was about to leave after meeting her son on August 26 when he started crying and told her that three senior students had sodomised him.
She said that soon more students came forward with similar complaints.
The gurukul’s director said the warden had told him about the incident a few days ago, but their internal investigation remained inconclusive.
The Gurukul is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education.
