Class 6 student molested at school in Mumbai suburbs, parents protest outside institution

Parents protested outside a private school in Kandivli (West) on Friday afternoon after reports that a Class 6 student had allegedly been molested by a senior student in the school premises on Thursday.

The parents accused the school management of not responding quickly to the incident. The 12-year-old girl was allegedly molested by an unknown boy at the school’s canteen on Thursday. The local Charkop police are trying to identify the minor boy who committed the crime.

According to Charkop police, the incident took place in the afternoon when the girl had gone to the canteen. The girl told police that a boy came from behind and put his hand inside her skirt. The girl, however, has not identified the culprit so far. Police are taking circumstantial and descriptive details of the boy from her in order to zero in on him.

Police said they will also go through CCTV camera footage in the school to see if they can get any leads in the case. They are also questioning a group of boys who were present in the canteen and witnessed the incident.

Relatives of the girl who was molested demanded to see the principal and school officials, but they said they were not allowed to enter the school premises. “The girl complained about the incident to her class teacher (on Thursday) and also told the school principal about it. After we got to know of it, we asked the school to not allow the students to leave unless the perpetrator was identified. The school, however, went ahead and allowed them to leave. We won’t keep quiet till we get answers,” said the girl’s aunt. The aunt alleged that school officials “trivialised” the issue by saying ‘such things keep happening’ and did not really act upon it.

School officials did not meet HT despite requests for a comment. The school principal did not respond to calls and messages from HT.

Officials at Charkop police station, who are investigating the event, registered a first information report (FIR) under Section 8 (sexual assault) of Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act after the girl’s mother filed a complaint.

As news about the incident spread on social media on Friday, several parents came to pick up their children from class earlier than usual. While the pre-primary section was allowed to leave school earlier than usual, children from primary and secondary sections were also allowed to leave early after insistence from their parents.

The parents’ association met school officials on Friday demanding clarity on the incident, after which the school administration agreed to meet them at 10am on Saturday. “The school has a lot of issues with respect to security. Many places do not have CCTV installed and when parents try to speak about these issues, their complaints are not entertained, ” said a parent.

First Published: Sep 01, 2018 01:03 IST