The Uttarakhand Police on Monday took into custody four minor students of a Dehradun residential school for allegedly gang-raping their 16-year-old classmate last month, reported the Hindustan Times. The boys, all 17 years old, were produced before a juvenile court on Tuesday.
The school’s director, principal, administration officer, his wife, and the hostel caretaker were also arrested and booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for allegedly destroying evidence related to the crime.
The incident, which took place on August 14, came to light on Sunday after Dehradun’s Senior Superintendent of Police Nivedita Kureti received information about the alleged rape and ordered an investigation.
The girl told her sister, who studies in the same school, about the crime and said that she was one month into a pregnancy, reported The Times of India. A team of Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights visited the school on Sunday, met the girl, and helped lodge a complaint at the Sahaspur police station.
The student was given several drinks to terminate the pregnancy after she informed the school administration, said USCPCR chairperson Usha Negi. “We have learnt that the medicated drinks were given to her by the administrator and his wife who, instead of reporting the matter to the police, were busy trying to hush it up,” she said.
The school authorities also took the girl to a nursing home to terminate the pregnancy, said Negi.
The USCPCR team also found that no female warden had been present over the last month in the hostel where girl students stayed. “There were no CCTV cameras in the premises, where both girls and boys were staying,” said Negi.
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