NEW DELHI: A boarding school in Dehradun district found itself in controversy after it was found that some students had allegedly gang-raped a Class 10 student and the school administration tried to sweep it under the carpet.
Four students and five school officials, including the director and the principal, were taken into custody, Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, Ashok Kumar said.
Three juvenile students were sent to correctional homes, while the remaining six are in judicial custody. The students, taken into custody, are aged between 16 and 18 years.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Dehradun, Nivedita Kureti had received a tip-off following which the case came into public domain and action was taken.
Later, the teenager confided to her family that she was sexually violated on August 14 after she was called to a storeroom on the pretext of preparation for an event.
The girl, who lived in the hostel, first informed her elder sister about her ordeal when she fell sick.
Her elder sister, who studies in the same school, drew the attention of school authorities but instead of reporting the matter to the police, they tried to hush it up, the ADG told the media.
They threatened to expel the two girls if they disclosed the episode to anyone, Kumar said, adding that the school authorities were accused of trying to abort the pregnancy of the teenager.
The five school officials arrested were director Lata Gupta, principal, administrative officer Deepak Malhotra, his wife Tanu Malhotra and a maid identified as Manju.
The police will take the girl to a sub-divisional magistrate for recording her statement. A case of gang rape and destruction of evidence was filed under the IPC and the POCSO Act.
Earlier, a team from the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights had visited a police station. During its investigation, the Commission had found that there was no CCTV present at the premises where the boarders stayed.
With Agency inputs