As per the chargesheet, the case was registered on the complaint of the victim’s father, who told the police that his daughter studies at a government model senior secondary school in Chandigarh and had been staying in the hostel. (Representational image)A 54-YEAR-OLD warden of the Girls Sports Hostel of Chandigarh will face trial for alleged sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl student in the hostel in 2018. The case is scheduled for the court hearing for April 19. Charges have been framed against the accused woman warden, Kawaldeesh Kaur, a native of Hoshiarpur, under Section 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act, 2012, by the court of Poonam R Joshi, Additional District and Sessions Judge.
As per the chargesheet, the case was registered on the complaint of the victim’s father, who told the police that his daughter studies at a government model senior secondary school in Chandigarh and had been staying in the hostel. The complainant alleged that his daughter, who is just 10 years old, called him on his mobile phone from the hostel on August 8, 2018, and informed him that the hostel warden took her to a separate room and made a video of her, and then the warden asked her “if anyone has said anything wrong to her or if anyone has done anything wrong to her”. The girl then started crying on the phone while talking to her father. Meanwhile, the warden who was then nearby disconnected the phone.
Next day the victim’s father went to meet his daughter in the hostel, where she immediately hugged him on seeing him and started crying again. The complainant then asked her whether the warden was troubling her. Then she told her father that “madam should be sent to jail”.
Narrating her ordeal, the girl told her father that the warden took her to her room and switched off the lights and switched on the light of her mobile phone, and then sexually assaulted her and again asked her “if anyone has said anything wrong to her or if anyone has done anything wrong to her”. A few days later, the warden again sexually assaulted her. However, other senior girls of the hostel got the door opened and took her along with them, as per the complaint.
The victim’s father informed the police about the incident. The victim’s medical examination was conducted at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, and the accused warden was booked under sections 10 and 6 of the POCSO Act at Sector 19 police station. The police seized the mobile phone of the warden, and sent it to CFSL. The police also sent a report to the Sports Council in Sector 42, Chandigarh.
The police in the chargesheet submitted in the court has made 28 witnesses, including the victim and her father. The trial of the case is scheduled to commence from the next date, April 19, when the victim will record her statement in the court.
