Under pressure from the general public and major Opposition parties, the Government came into action and made second arrest in the rape of a six-year-old school girl in Bangalore.
Just a few days after the arrest of the skating instructor, the Bangalore police on Wednesday arrested Rustom Kerawalla, Chairman of Vibgyor International School in connection with the alleged rape which brought Bangalore to halt.
According to Bangalore Commissioner of Police MN Reddi, a case has been registered against posh school in Bangalore East for abetting the crime.
He said, “Bangalore police arrested Kerawalla, the chairman of Vibgyor School, from Daman and Diu on Tuesday and brought him to city on Wednesday. We have booked the Chairman for destruction of evidence, denial of information to police and a criminal act on a minor under his custody.”
One of the accused, Mustafa, 30, a skating instructor in the school, was arrested on July 20. Mustafa has also been accused of being a pedophile, as pornographic videos of children being raped were found in his mobile and laptop.
“We have stepped up the investigation and efforts are on to nab the other accused as we are also probing other staff members,” Reddi said in a Press conference in Bangalore.
According to MN Reddi, Kerawala has been booked for destruction of evidence (Section 201 of IPC) and delay in reporting the crime against a child in his school (under Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act) and failure to protect the child an negligence (Section 21 of POCSO Act). The six-year-old was raped on July 2 but the case was reported only on July 17. “Prima facie there has been a failure to report the case and the failure to protect the child, so we have gone ahead with the arrest,” MN Reddi said.
Section 23 Juvenile Justice Act (anyone with charge or control of a child willfully neglecting a juvenile), Section 21 of Prevention of Sexual Offences Against Children (POCSO) Act (Failing to report a crime of rape) were invoked as there was clear negligence of the school administration from the part of the shool, Police said besides, Section 201 of IPC for destruction of evidence.
Denying delay or cover-up in the case, the top cop said no stone would be left unturned in unravelling the truth, bringing culprits to book and doing justice to the kid and her parents.
“We are going hammer and tongs in the case against the school management and the accused. We want to send a strong message to everyone that any crime against children, girls and women in schools, colleges or anywhere will be dealt stringently and their perpetrators punished severely, Reddy claimed.
In fact, recent incidents of rapes in the city has put the ruling Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah under pressure and the people and the Opposition BJP has protested the apathy of the Government in handling the cases.
The Government in a bid to instill confidence, did major surgery to the Bangalore Police and transferred Police Commissioner Raghavendra Aurdhkar who faced the wrath of anger and fury of the people.