In yet another incident of crime against children, a nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a cleaner in campus of a Dadar school.
The class 5 girl student had missed her school bus after annual programme and was waiting for relatives to take her home. Police said that the child then approached her class teacher who in turn called the woman-attendant in the school at around 5:30pm.
The girl went to the second floor of the school to use the toilet, where the accused followed her and raped her.
The accused Somnath Yadav (18) was produced before a court after arrest. He has been sent to police remand.
“When the victim failed to return till late evening, her worried mother rushed to the school. There she found her daughter sitting alone. After seeing her mother the girl ran to her and started crying inconsolably,” said a police officer.
“After the victim narrated to her mother what happened, the latter came to the police station and an FIR was registered,” he said.
The police swung into action and arrested the accused from the school canteen. “The accused used to sleep in the school canteen itself,” said the officer adding that the victim was subjected to medical test and her statement recorded.
The principal has said that the cleaner was not a school staffer, but was employed by the caterer who is caretaker of the school’s hall. According to her, “the annual gathering was meant for students from classes 5 to 12. The students who go by BEST bus went home before the programme was over. This nine-year-old stayed back till last. When the teachers found that one girl is yet to leave, we collected her parents’ number. Her mother is a housemaid and it is her aunt who usually comes to pick her up. After her mother said that her aunt will reach school in 15 minutes, the teacher who was with her left around 7.30pm.”
