"The survivor is 100 per cent visually impaired," said police. (Representational)
In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by a 16-year-old boy at one of the top institutes for the visually impaired in Dehradun.
The accused was taken into police custody after the sexual assault survivor complained to the principal of the institute. He has been kept under house arrest at the same institute.
Ashok Kumar, Additional Director General of Police, Uttarakhand, confirmed the incident to IANS and said that the alleged sexual assault took place on September 2.
When the 11-year-old complained to the principal of the institute, an internal probe was initiated. The principal approached the police on September 6.
"Since the incident happened at an institute by the government of India, we took time to investigate the matter. We asked the authorities at the institute to not let the accused go out of the institute," said Mr Kumar.
Superintendent of Police of Dehradun Shweta Choubey told IANS: "We arrested the accused juvenile only after launching the primary investigation."
Sub inspector Arti Kalura has been given the charge to investigate the matter, said police in-charge of Rajpur Marg Police Station, Ashok Rathore.
Ms Choubey said: "The accused is a student of Class 11. He has been studying here for the last 10-11 years. Both the survivor and accused are from Uttar Pradesh. The 11-year-old is from a very poor background."
"The survivor is 100 per cent visually impaired," said Ashok Rathore.
On delay in action against the accused, Mr Rathore said, "Both the survivor and accused were juvenile. The role of the police in the investigation was limited."
"We took the accused in custody on September 12 and produced him in a juvenile court. The court ordered him to be kept under house arrest until the investigation was completed," Mr Rathore added.
"We are also investigating if any such incidents happened in the past," said Ms Choubey.
The principal of the institute told IANS: "The incident took place on September 2. After an initial probe, we handed over the matter to the police who registered a case under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)."
To a question if the incident will dent the image of the institute, the principal said, "The matter is in juvenile court. The institute has taken the incident very seriously, and has constituted a high-powered committee to look into the matter and find out if any such incident happened in the past."