3-year-old sexually assaulted by attender in Bengaluru school

Staffer innocent, claims school management

A three-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted twice by an attender in a reputed private school in the City.

According to a police source, the accused has been identified as Nagaraj, 30, a native of Andhra Pradesh. The victim’s parents claimed that the incident took place twice, once in October and again on November 26.

The victim informed her parents on November 29 and they lodged a complaint with the police on the same day. The suspect was arrested the next day, under the Pocso Act.
The medical examination reports are awaited to confirm the sexual assault, added the source.

The police said that further details of the investigation cannot be revealed as it is a sensitive case. The school name and the area cannot be divulged as it would garner unwanted attention.

When contacted, the school management said that they are co-operating with the police as well as the victim’s parents. The management has 30 CCTV cameras installed on the entire school premises and in all the classrooms, they have handed over the footages for further investigation.

The school claims that the attender is innocent. Nagaraj appeared before the police himself and surrendered, denying the parents’ allegations. He also had an alibi that he was not present on November 26, as he was in another branch attending a workshop.

A member of the management claimed that no such incident has taken place in the school and that the parents have lodged a complaint with the police based on suspicion. With all the cameras in the school there are no chances of any untoward incident going unnoticed, the member said adding that there were ayahs for every classroom and children could not go out of the room without them noticing.

Missing nameboard
When a Deccan Herald reporter visited the school, it was found that the nameboard of the school was missing. The management said they had recently shifted to the building in June and are yet to fit the board. Contrary to the school management’s claims, parents said the board was removed after last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Block Education Officer confirmed that the school had permission to function from the same building and they had not shifted recently.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, BEO North Zone III, V Ramesh said: “I visited the school following reports of the incident and I have submitted a report on the same to the DDPI. There are CCTVs both outside and inside the building.”

His investigations at he school also revealed that the management had obtained permission to run classes 1 to 5 in Kannada medium, but they were running English medium classes, too.

Parents in the dark
Most of the parents, when asked if they were aware of the incident, said they had no clue of such a thing in the school and no one from the school management had informed them.

Suspect was teacher in AP
The school management said the accused was working as a teacher in Andhra Pradesh before joining the school as an attender in May. The management said he was employed as an attender because his English was not up to the mark. He is a graduate and was later shifted to the marketing team based on his qualification as he did not want to work as an attender.