Police in India has registered a case of rape against a 4-year-old schoolboy in the Indian capital, Delhi after he allegedly sexually assaulted a girl in his class.
A medical examination of the alleged victim confirmed the injuries were consistent with the description of the incident.
The victim’s mother said the assault took place last Friday while the class teacher was not present in the classroom and her daughter couldn’t ask for help from anyone.
“The boy had just finished eating his food, he had not washed his hands and then touched her private parts. In the washroom, there was no Didi [attendant] who could help her; in the classroom, her class teacher was not around, and here child says he sharpened his pencil and put it in too," NDTV quoted the from a letter by the victim’s mother purportedly sent to the channel.
The woman the assault took place again in the school bathroom. She said her daughter was in severe pain and told her about the incident just before going to bed.
"She cried a lot and went on the look for an ointment that I usually apply when they are hurt, Arnica. When I opened her bloomers and saw the injury, I was shocked. The signs of assault were visible as her private part was red and swollen, and when I applied ointment to it, she started crying all the more in pain.”
The woman accused the school of “extraordinary negligence” and said the school ignored her concerns when she informed the class teacher via a text message on Friday night and again on Saturday. In her statement to the police, she claimed the school told her to submit a written complaint on Monday
However, the school management on Thursday doubted the incident happened.
"We have no clarity if it took place or not. We feel it is impossible that this incident can take place.
“There were two class teachers and an attendant in the classroom and a maid in the washroom. These four remain in contact with children all the time and the girl didn’t tell any of them during the four hours [she was in school],” said school’s consul, NB Joshi.
The school says the boy is not seen entering the washroom in the surveillance camera footage.
"It is clearly seen on CCTV footage that the boy has not entered the washroom," Mr Joshi said. "The little girl looks happy in the CCTV footage and nothing out of the ordinary appears to have happened on the 17th with her," he said.
Although a case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act- the law introduced after the infamous 2012 gangrape of a medical student in Delhi that made headline all over the world, this case is a complicated one due to the age of both the children involved.
Under the Indian law, a child below seven years of age cannot be held responsible for any crime. A Delhi police spokesperson said the boy was being counselled by experts.
The school informed the girl’s parents that it was safe for her to return to school as the boy in question had been moved to another section.
Delhi’s Commission for Protection of Child Rights has summoned the principal and three staff members of the school, news agency PTI reported.
The incident has come at the back of an alleged murder of a 7-year-old boy in a school bathroom in India's National Capital Region earlier in September. Earlier this month, a class XI student was arrested for the murder.
