A 16-year-old boy working in the canteen of a school in Maharashtra's Palghar sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl several times on the school premises, the police said.
The boy, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, has been detained and sent to a remand room, the cops added. The incident took place in the Naigaon area of Palghar. The boy had come from Uttar Pradesh two months ago to work in the canteen, news agency PTI reported quoting a police official.
The matter came to light when the girl, a Class 2 student, refused to go to the school canteen on Thursday and told her class teacher that an "uncle" working there troubled her, the official said.
The school headmaster was informed, and further inquiries with the girl revealed that the accused allegedly sexually assaulted her at least four times, he said.
The headmaster informed the police, and a case was registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The police have seized the CCTV footage from the school and are enquiring if the accused had similarly abused any other student.
Earlier this week, incidents of sexual assault in Maharashtra's Badlapur led to massive protests against the police over their delayed response. The matter reached the Bombay High Court which took a suo motu cognisance and made strong observations regarding the incident where two four-year-old girls were sexually assaulted in a school by a 23-year-old man who worked there as a cleaner.
The outrage has also been fuelled by the fact that the parents of the girls were made to wait 11 hours at a local police station for a First Information Report. The three police personnel involved have been suspended by the government. The Bombay High Court said, "If schools are not a safe place... then what is the point of talking about 'right to education'?"
The court also reprimanded the police and state on several counts, including failing to file a case - in a disturbing reminder of how Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital delayed filing a case in the rape and murder of a doctor this month - against the school despite complaints from the girls.
- With Inputs from PTI
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