Principal, 5 others held in rape of student

chapra (bihar) — A Class 9 girl has alleged that she was raped and blackmailed by her school’s principal, two teachers and 16 students in Bihar’s Saran district, police said on Saturday. The principal and a teacher were arrested and four students apprehended in this regard, Superintendent of Police (Saran) Harkishore Rai said.

In her complaint, the girl alleged that she was raped and subsequently blackmailed for seven months by the principal, two teachers and 16 students.

The school is located in Parsagarh village which comes under the jurisdiction of Ekma police station of Saran district, about 35km from the district headquarters of Chapra.

The SP has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar Singh, who visited the school on Friday, and made the arrests. Raids are being conducted to apprehend the other accused, the SP added.

In the complaint, the victim alleged that she was first raped by some of the students of her school in a toilet there in December 2017, Rai said. The students also recorded a video of the act and threatened her to make it viral if she reported the matter to anyone, he said.

When the victim complained to the principal about the incident, he convinced and persuaded her not to lodge a complaint as the matter would bring disrepute to her and the family, the SP said. The principal along with two teachers, later, also raped and blackmailed her, the girl alleged.

The victim said on Saturday that she could not muster courage to lodge a complaint with the police since her father was in jail for several months. The girl’s father was released from jail a couple of days ago and a complaint was lodged on Friday. —