In a shocking development in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam city, the son of a private school watchman was booked for sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl on the school premises. Having been taught "good touch-bad touch" and "stranger danger" rules of body privacy by her parents, an Upper Kindergarten (UKG) student was able to tell her mother what happened, leading to the boy's arrest.
According to the police, the girl told her mother of the incident on the night of September 27, Friday. The accused, who was booked under the relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), exploited the child in the watchman's room on the third floor of the school building. The child being taken to the room went unnoticed as CCTVs were operational only on the ground floor of the private institution, news agency PTI said in a report.
The teenager is a Class 10 student who was admitted to another branch of the same school.
" An investigation was conducted after the girl's mother lodged a complaint that her daughter was sexually assaulted in the school where her daughter is a UKG student. The accused boy has been taken into custody," Additional Superintendent of Police Rakesh Khakha told PTI.
The boy has been booked under sections 65-ii (Whoever commits rape on a woman under twelve years of age) and 75 (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita apart from the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari expressed anguish and accused the BJP government of failing to protect daughters.
"The news of a tragic incident with a 5-year-old girl in Ratlam has deeply disturbed me. Such incidents happen with our daughters every day in MP. I am deeply pained," he stated on X.
"Daughters will not get justice by just asking for help from the government on social media. Now the Congress party will fight this battle on the streets," he said.