An office assistant was arrested today for the sexual assault of a three-and-a-half-year old girl at a city school, four days after the appalling crime that evoked public outrage.
The man was identified as Gundappa, aged 42, an office assistant in the Orchids International School, where the incident took place on October 22.
"We had registered a case under Sec 376 IPC (relating to rape) and Sections 4 and 6 of POCSO Act. The investigation was on. Today we have made an arrest in this case," Bangalore Police Commissioner M N Reddi told reporters here.
Sections 4 and 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 relate to punishment for penetrative sexual assault and punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault, respectively.
Police had registered a criminal case invoking POSCO Act and IPC on a complaint from the child's father.The girl, a nursery student, was crying when her mother picked her up from school on Oct 22 and she was not behaving normally and had symptoms of fever. While she initially told her mother that someone beat her up, she later said she was sexually assaulted, according to the parents.
The breakthrough comes a day after a functionary of the trust running the school was arrested on charges of violation of norms.General Secretary of the trust K R K Reddy was arrested in connection with the cases under various IPC sections including 420 (cheating) besides RTE Act filed on Thursday night against the school after it was found allegedly functioning illegally, flouting the rules and law and cheating public.
Three cases of sexual assault have occurred in Bangalore in the last four months, raising questions about safety of girls in schools and triggering protests from outraged parents.
An eight-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by her 63-year-old teacher inside her school premises over a period of time. The offence came to light in early August, barely a month after the rape of a six-year-old girl at 'Vibgyor High' school here which led to street protests.
The incidents had prompted Bangalore police to issue strict safety guidelines amid reports that many schools were observing them in the breach.According to police, in the Orchid school case, besides Reddy, three other office bearers of Sri Gowtham Academy of General & Technical Education Society, which runs the school at Jalahalli, have been booked under the RTE Act and IPC sections.
They have been charged with "flouting the rules, violating the law, illegally running a CBSE English Medium School and having cheated the public, parents and particularly more than 900 children without any recognition either from the state or from the Central Government".
It was found during inspection that the society had secured permission on March 25, 2013, from the state government to run primary school from Class 1 to 5 in Kannada medium, but was running classes from pre-nursery to seventh standard CBSE English Medium in gross violation and abuse of law.
The authorities had collected huge money on false promise, claiming that it was a recognised school, according to the complaint lodged with police by the Deputy Director of Public Instructions H B Manjunath.
