Raipur: The Jashpur police have arrested a caretaker and a watchman for allegedly raping an inmate of a government-funded school for special need children.
The training centre-cum-school is being run with the help funds from District Mineral Foundation (DMF) under Rajiv Gandhi Siksha Yojana.
The incident reportedly occurred on the intervening night of September 22-23.
A seventeen-year-old was allegedly sexually assaulted and other five inmates were allegedly molested by the caretaker and the watchman at the training centre in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, the police said.
The police were informed about the incident on Thursday night and they arrested both the accused the next morning, Superintendent of Police Vijay Agrawal told FPJ over phone.
A senior police official said that it will take a lot of time to gather other information as the children's statements had to be recorded with the help of an interpreter and sign language expert.
However, all the accused were arrested, and we are producing them in court today, the superintendent said. In cracking the case our female staff team under the ASP proactively worked, he added.
When asked about the government's promise of taking tough measures to avert such incidents in future, he said that the question should be asked to the district collector.
The accused caretaker and watchman were booked under IPC section 376 (rape), 354 (molestation) of the IPC and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the SP said.
Sources said that the caretaker and watchman were drunk as the superintendent of the school was absent. They went into the area where these minor girls were sleeping, beat them up and tore their clothes. They molested some of the girls and sexually assaulted the teen.
The case was reported to police by the superintendent after they came back to the centre, the sources said.
The incident was a reminder of Kanker’s Haliyamari residential school incident of 2013 where at least 15 minor tribal minor girls studying school were continuously sexually exploited for years.
The incident had sparked state-level outrage and compelled the then Raman Singh-led BJP government to order inspection of all residential schools, hostels in the state.
