School van driver held for assault on minor in south Delhi

NEW DELHI: A six-year old girl is alleged to have been sexually assaulted by a school van driver in south Delhi. When the girl complained of pain in her private parts and refused to get into the van, the parents realised something was wrong.

The girl then revealed to her mother that the van driver had been touching her inappropriately for a year. The parents approached the cops on Tuesday and the 30-year-old driver, a resident of Jaitpur, was arrested on Wednesday and booked for rape.
Rajesh Deo, DCP (South-East), said, "The mother, who said the family had hired a private cab to take the daughter to school every day, disclosed that her daughter had informed her that the van driver had been touching her private parts while driving back from school for a year." The DCP said a case was registered against the driver on Tuesday, invoking provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Police investigations revealed that the accused, Mohammad Azhar, was to have got married on May 2. They said Azhar daily transported 20-25 students, most of them class I and II students, to and from school every day.
"The girl had recently started going for classes when the new academic session started. The driver had been picking and dropping her for around a year. The accused usually groped and fondled her towards the end of the trip home after most of the small children got off," said an investigator. "Coincidentally, when the mother taught the girl about good and bad touches, the kid confided in her and told her about her ordeal. She also complained of discomfort in her private parts."
The officer added, "Since she is young and yet to come to terms with what she went through, she hasn't been able to divulge much to us. We are yet to record her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC. We will now question other children who travelled in the van to find out if the driver misbehaved with them too."
The case is not singular, many others involving private vans having been reported earlier. Therefore, senior police officers suggested that parents should be careful while contracting such cabs or vans and to ensure that the driver was verified by police. They also advised that a female attendant be present in vans, especially those that carried children smaller than 10 years.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)