NOIDA: A three-year-old student who was sexually assaulted allegedly by a housekeeping staffer of a frontline school’s junior wing on campus earlier this month was molested by the same man a few weeks ago, the child’s mother told TOI on Wednesday, pointing to the serious lapse that allowed a predator to target her daughter twice and questioning the school management’s attitude and response since she incident came to light.
On Oct 4, the school worker had allegedly taken the child to the school’s medical room, locked its doors and sexually abused the child, the mother said.
He allegedly leapt out of the window and fled when another staffer — a ‘didi’ — came looking on hearing the child’s scream. The mother claimed the child was eventually escorted back to her class by a teacher, but when asked about the incident, her imputation was that the girl may have seen some inappropriate videos online.
She said her daughter refused to go to school on Oct 7 and complained of pain in her private parts. “We took her to a paediatrician and the doctor wrote some tests to check for infection. The next day, the doctor told us that there was no infection, but the child had been sexually assaulted,” she said.
After counselling, the child told her parents that a man who served food to the kids at school — referring to him as ‘khana bhaiya’ — had pricked her private parts with a stick when she went to school on Oct 4.
“‘Bhaiya danda karte hai’ she kept repeating. That’s when she told us that this was the second time that he had done so. A few weeks back, the same man molested the child when she was on a slide in the school’s playground,” the mother said.
The child, she added, told them that she had reported the incident to her class teacher, but was told ‘gharpe mat batana’ (don’t tell anyone at home about the incident).
“I called up the class teacher on Oct 8 and asked her about the two incidents. To my surprise, the teacher tried to brush away the incident and said that my daughter may have watched an inappropriate video online and may be telling the events as her own. I was taken aback, and asked the teacher that watching a video would not give my daughter pain, redness, and rashes in her private parts,” the mother said, adding she went to the police after this.
The family submitted a complaint at Sector 20 police station the same day and an FIR was registered on Oct 9. The child’s statement was recorded before the Child Welfa re Committee ( CWC ) and she identified the accused from a set of pictures shown to her by the cops as a part of the probe. Subsequently, the 30-year-old housekeeping staffer was arrested from Nithari village on Oct 10 under BNS Section 65(2) (rape of a woman under 12 years). CWC member Dipti Yadav said the committee served a notice to the school and summoned the headmistress on Wednesday.
The school’s headmistress, meanwhile, told TOI they got to know about the alleged sexual assault when a police team visited the school on Oct 9. “The parents did not talk to us about the incident before this,” she said.
Deputy CP Rambadan Singh said in their complaint the parents did not mention the class teacher was informed about the incident earlier.
The family said that they would withdraw their child from the school.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
On Oct 4, the school worker had allegedly taken the child to the school’s medical room, locked its doors and sexually abused the child, the mother said.
He allegedly leapt out of the window and fled when another staffer — a ‘didi’ — came looking on hearing the child’s scream. The mother claimed the child was eventually escorted back to her class by a teacher, but when asked about the incident, her imputation was that the girl may have seen some inappropriate videos online.
She said her daughter refused to go to school on Oct 7 and complained of pain in her private parts. “We took her to a paediatrician and the doctor wrote some tests to check for infection. The next day, the doctor told us that there was no infection, but the child had been sexually assaulted,” she said.
After counselling, the child told her parents that a man who served food to the kids at school — referring to him as ‘khana bhaiya’ — had pricked her private parts with a stick when she went to school on Oct 4.
“‘Bhaiya danda karte hai’ she kept repeating. That’s when she told us that this was the second time that he had done so. A few weeks back, the same man molested the child when she was on a slide in the school’s playground,” the mother said.
The child, she added, told them that she had reported the incident to her class teacher, but was told ‘gharpe mat batana’ (don’t tell anyone at home about the incident).
“I called up the class teacher on Oct 8 and asked her about the two incidents. To my surprise, the teacher tried to brush away the incident and said that my daughter may have watched an inappropriate video online and may be telling the events as her own. I was taken aback, and asked the teacher that watching a video would not give my daughter pain, redness, and rashes in her private parts,” the mother said, adding she went to the police after this.
The family submitted a complaint at Sector 20 police station the same day and an FIR was registered on Oct 9. The child’s statement was recorded before the Child Welfa re Committee ( CWC ) and she identified the accused from a set of pictures shown to her by the cops as a part of the probe. Subsequently, the 30-year-old housekeeping staffer was arrested from Nithari village on Oct 10 under BNS Section 65(2) (rape of a woman under 12 years). CWC member Dipti Yadav said the committee served a notice to the school and summoned the headmistress on Wednesday.
The school’s headmistress, meanwhile, told TOI they got to know about the alleged sexual assault when a police team visited the school on Oct 9. “The parents did not talk to us about the incident before this,” she said.
Deputy CP Rambadan Singh said in their complaint the parents did not mention the class teacher was informed about the incident earlier.
The family said that they would withdraw their child from the school.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
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