Boy sexually tormented for 10 months in school

A high school boy was sexually assaulted and traumatised for about 10 months by five of his classmates in a school in north Bengaluru.

It took a long time for Victor (name changed), a ninth standard student, to talk about what he was going through. However, a counsellor eventually got him to reveal his trauma and alerted the police, who then hauled up his tormentors.

The harassment began in October 2017 during a class in which the teacher was explaining the reproductive system. Victor was then in the eighth standard.

One of Victor’s classmates pulled down his pants, pinched his private parts. He was joined by two others, who masturbated him, drew obscene pictures and forced him to view them, police said. Others joined in the sexual assault. When the class reassembled after the summer break, the sexual assaults became a daily affair.

Victor developed extreme fear and began to display abnormal behaviour. He would throw himself about, punch and scratch himself.

He also became aggressive, beating up his parents and running away from home time and again. Victor’s parents took him to Nimhans, but a long wait went in vain; no doctors were available to see him.

Subsequently, he was taken to MS Ramaiah Hospital, where doctors calmed him with sedatives. A counsellor then spoke to him over many sessions, and finally got him to write down what was happening to him. That was when the assaults came to light.

The counsellor also encouraged him to communicate his trauma to his mother. Together, they contacted the Sadashivanagar police and lodged a complaint. “This shouldn’t happen to anyone,” he reportedly told the police. On June 29, police took the five tormentors into custody and sent them to a rehabilitation home.

Mother threatened

Four of the five boys detained in the case are sons of senior defence officers. The school has suspended all five.

Victor’s mother, who works as a peon at one of the defence establishments, was threatened by a serving senior defence officer, who is also the father of one of the detained boys.

“If you don’t withdraw the case, you will lose your job and livelihood,” he told her in the presence of this reporter.

The woman is the only breadwinner of her family. Her elder son has just completed engineering and her husband gets occasional pest-control jobs.

No letting them off

The case came up for hearing on Thursday, with the defence lawyer arguing that the detained children be released as they were missing out on their lessons. The Juvenile Justice Board turned down the submission and sought CCTV footage and documents from the school.

Srinivasa Raju, the public prosecutor, said the boys should be kept in detention, given the seriousness of their offences.