Nine boys and a parent have been arrested for the horrific attack on 34 girls at a residential school in Bihar - a crime over which the Supreme Court cited concern today. All the boys are minors and allegedly were part of a mob that broke into the school in Saupaul, 250 km from Patna, and targeted teachers and students.
"All these newspaper reports are not good. Skeleton of girls found... 34 girls beaten up because they wanted to protect themselves from molestation. How could you treat children like this? These kinds of problems are arising day in and day out," the top court said.
The court also told the Centre to set up a national institution to ensure proper psychological rehabilitation of victims as well as juvenile accused.
Thirty-four girls of the Kasturba Residential School had to be hospitalized after Saturday's attack, which, the police said, took place after a few girls of the school had resisted local boys' attempts to molest them. When the boys persisted, the girls had beaten them up.
A couple of hours later, the boys had come back to the school, accompanied by their parents and relatives. They broke into the school and beat up the teachers and students.
A senior police officer of the area, SK Singhal, said: "All nine accused and mother of one accused -- total ten people -- were arrested in this case. The victims and assailants are all from the Scheduled Castes."
All the girls have now been discharged from the hospital and there will be speedy trial in this case, the officer added.
After the attack, opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav condemned the government in strongest terms. In a series of tweets, Tejashwi Yadav said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has "totally surrendered himself in the hands of goons & Deputy CM is begging mercy to hardened criminals".
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