Bangalore shaming: Attendant arrested for sexually assaulting 3-year-old girl in school

Bangalore: An office assistant was arrested on Saturday for the sexual assault of a three-and-a-half-year old girl at a city school, four days after the appalling crime that evoked public outrage.

The man was identified as Gundappa, aged 42, an office assistant in the Orchids International School, where the incident took place on 22 October.

“We had registered a case under Sec 376 IPC (relating to rape) and Sections 4 and 6 of POCSO Act. The investigation was on. Today we have made an arrest in this case,” Bangalore Police Commissioner MN Reddi told reporters here.

Sections 4 and 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 relate to punishment for penetrative sexual assault and punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault, respectively.

Police had registered a criminal case invoking POSCO Act and IPC on a complaint from the child’s father.

The girl, a nursery student, was crying when her mother picked her up from school on 22 October and she was not behaving normally and had symptoms of fever. While she initially told her mother that someone beat her up, she later said she was sexually assaulted, according to the parents.

The breakthrough comes a day after a functionary of the trust running the school was arrested on charges of violation of norms.

General Secretary of the trust K R K Reddy was arrested in connection with the cases under various IPC sections including 420 (cheating) besides RTE Act filed on Thursday night against the school after it was found allegedly functioning illegally, flouting the rules and law and cheating public.

PTI