Badlapur sexual assault: School management, principal, employee booked

THANE: A day after being reprimanded by the Bombay high court, the Badlapur police on Friday booked the management, principal and an employee of the pre-primary school where a cleaning staff member sexually assaulted two four-year-old girls.
The state-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) that’s probing the sexual assault, which sparked statewide outrage and protests, added their names to the list of accused persons in the case on Friday. They were booked under section 21 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which mandates the reporting of sexual offences against children and prescribes punishment of up to one year for failing to do so.
The accused allegedly did not report the sexual assault to the police despite being informed by the families of the two minor survivors. Under the section, those in charge of the institution where the assault takes place face imprisonment of up to one year, while others can be imprisoned for up to six months.
Badlapur citizens and Opposition leaders in the state have been demanding action against the school administration since Tuesday. The SIT said it had recorded the statements of both minor survivors and their parents, along with school officials. A forensic team has collected samples from the crime scene.
On Thursday, after taking suo motu (on its own) cognizance of the case, the Bombay high court slammed the Badlapur police for the delay in the registering a First Information Report (FIR). It also lashed out at the school authorities for failing to report the crime to the police promptly. The high court observed that the survivors’ parents had to wait 11 hours to file a complaint with the police.
Meanwhile, Rupali Banarjee, member secretary of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), visited Badlapur on Friday to conduct an inquiry into the incident. An NCPCR team questioned the suspended headmistress and two staff members from the school. While the directors and other members of the school management who were summoned for the inquiry were present, the entire management later fled without facing the inquiry.
The sexual assault on two four-year-old girls at the Badlapur school and the local police’s tardiness in registering an FIR became a flashpoint for thousands of protestors to take to the streets and block railway tracks for over eight hours on Tuesday. Dozens of protestors were later arrested after four different cases against around 500 people.