Class 12 student held for rape

MIDNAPORE: A Class XII student from West Bengal’s East Midnapore district has been arrested on charges of raping a six-yearold, hours after he wrote his first board exam and got back home, police said.

The 19-year-old was produced in a Tamluk court on Wednesday, which remanded him in 14 days’ judicial custody. Sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, have been slapped against him.

According to Sabyasachi Sengupta, sub-divisional officer of Tamluk, the youth tempted the child, who is his neighbour, to go to his house in Shyamsundarpur Patna village on Sunday, saying he would give her chocolates.

Sengupta said a complaint was filed by the girl’s parents on Tuesday. She was apparently tutored by the 19-year-old youth not to breathe a word to anyone. But she told her mother about the incident.

Another officer of Panskura police station said, ”The victim has been taken to a hospital for medical tests.”

On February 18, a 16-year-old boy from Durgapur was arrested for allegedly raping a Class I student on the day between his geography and math board exams, the police said. He was allowed to write his remaining exams under a cops’ supervision and then sent to a shelter home for juveniles in Burdwan town.

According to National Crime Records Bureau data, West Bengal accounted for 11.31%, 10.11% and 9.6% of crimes against women in the country in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.