Ruckus in school over 4-yr-old girl’s ‘abuse’ by classmate
Such cases have to be dealt with ... under the supervision of experts. Too much questioning could leave the girl, as well as the boy, traumatised.
RAJESH SAGAR, professor of psychiatry at AIIMS
NEWDELHI: A four-year-old girl was allegedly “touched inappropriately”, possibly by a boy of the same age, in a school in outer Delhi on Wednesday, police said.
Seju P Kuruvilla, deputy commissioner of police (outer Delhi), said though the girl later identified the boy by name, investigators are continuing with the identification process to rule out the role of anyone else, as well as to probe if there was any negligence on the part of the school.
Soon after the girl’s mother approached t he police on Wednesday, a case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) was registered against “unknown” person. “The FIR was meant to initiate an investigation. If our probe confirms the role of a boy so young, we will move to cancel the case,” Kuruvilla said.
The officer clarified that the Indian Penal Code (IPC) protects children below the age of seven from prosecution. “As per law, there cannot be an FIR against a four-year-old boy,” the DCP said.
But several local residents accused the school of negligence and vandalised the property on Thursday morning.
A video showed them breaking the windowpanes of classrooms, smashing benches and ceiling fans, even as one of them called for the school to be razed to the ground. Soon, a large number of police personnel was deployed in the neighbourhood.
The alleged abuse came to fore when the girl returned home from school on Wednesday. When her mother enquired about her dirtied dress, the child allegedly referred to the incident. The mother visited the local police station after which a case under Section 6 of POCSO Act was registered. While this section is applied when there is an “aggravated penetrative sexual assault”, the DCP said the girl was not physically hurt.
“In her complaint, the girl’s mother suspected the role of a classmate or some other person. The child later named a boy, but we just want to be sure it wasn’t someone else,” the DCP said.
The girl hasn’t been able to point out when and where the alleged abuse happened. “In the ongoing investigation, we will try to recreate the incident scene, but without adding to the trauma of the girl. We are ensuring that the boy is not traumatised either,” said the DCP. The boy’s parents have been informed, but without involving him.
A similar i ncident was reported from a private school in November last year when an FIR named a four-year-old boy of “sexually assaulting” his classmate. Experts then had warned against criminalising and labelling the boy as a sexual predator as pre-pubescent children do not understand sexual behaviour.
On Thursday, Rajesh Sagar, professor of psychiatry at AIIMS, said such “imitations” by young children was not unnatural as they often tend to copy what they see around them. But it was unlikely that any sexual intent was behind the act, he said.
“Such cases have to be dealt with in a controlled environment and under the supervision of experts. Too much questioning could leave the girl, as well as the boy, traumatised,” Sagar said.