BHOPAL: A chilling incident of a three and half years old nursery student of a prominent school being sexually assaulted allegedly in the school bus by the bus driver in presence of the bus’s woman attendant/caretaker has been reported in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal.
Four days after the shocking incident happened inside the bus, the accused bus driver and the co-accused woman attendant have been arrested and booked under Section 376AB and 5/6 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The arrested duo was produced by the Mahila Thana police team before a local court on Tuesday, after which the court accepting the police’s request, sent the duo on day-long police remand.
Daily, the nursery students go to school with an additional pair of school dress and undergarments to help the school staff to change their dress in case of kids vomiting, urinating or excreting in a dress worn by them from home to school.
On September 8, when the girl returned from school, her parents found that the dress had been changed. On asking her who changed the dress, she told them that the bus uncle changed the dress, after which the parents checked another pair of dresses kept inside the school bag, but that dress was neither dirty nor wet. The matter was enquired from the minor’s class teacher over the phone, but she declined about the dress having been changed in the school.
On being asked further by their parents, the nursery student confirmed about the bus driver “badly touching” her private parts, face, lips and chest. This made the parents remember their daughter complaining to them about pain in private parts around a week back, after which the matter was reported by the parents to the school administration on September 9.
With the school not acting in the matter as expeditiously as it should have, the parents reported the matter to the Bhopal police on Monday, after which a case was lodged in the matter and the accused duo arrested.
Importantly, despite the concerned school bus being equipped with CCTV, the footage of the day concerned wasn’t available.
According to Bhopal police commissioner, Makarand Deouskar, “the police have taken the matter very seriously. After lodging the case, appropriate action has been taken against the accused.”
Meanwhile, speaking about the incident, the state’s home minister Narottam Mishra said, “While both accused have been arrested, I strongly feel that the school management has tried to cover up the shocking incident. The school management too will be grilled by the police and on being found wanting in the matter, action will be initiated against them too.”
Reacting to the incident, state’s culture and tourism minister Usha Thakur said, “The BJP government has been highly sensitive to the crime against small girls’ right since the beginning, as MP was the first state in 2017, to pass a bill in the Vidhan Sabha to award capital punishment to those convicted for raping girls aged below 12 years. Also, the government has worked immensely to fast track the hearing of such cases of heinous crime, but real change will only happen when moral standards are enhanced by the society as a whole.”
The former deputy speaker of Vidhan Sabha and Congress legislator Hina Kaware blamed the “insensitivity” of Shivraj Singh Chouhan government for such crimes. “Mere framing of laws won’t help, their proper implementation is needed. The present state government is insensitive to this aspect. We’ll raise the issue majorly in the Vidhan Sabha.”