A six-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by an unidentified man in the hostel of a residential “porta cabin” school in Chhattisgarh’s tribal-dominated Sukma district on July 22, police have said.
Porta cabin residential schools were set up in Left Wing Extremism-affected villages of the state’s Bastar division, which includes Sukma district.
The one in Errabor area where the incident happened houses 429 girls.
The victim’s parents told the police that she was sleeping when the man entered the room. He took the girl to another part of the same structure and tried to assault her before taking her back and escaping. The girl who went to her village on Sunday told her parents about the incident. They reported the matter to the police, said Sukma Superintendent of Police Kiran G Chavan.
Mr. Chavan added that a case under sections 376 AB (rape on a woman under 12 years of age), 456 (house trespass), 363 (kidnapping) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered and investigation has started.
The police, however, have not been able to zero in on the suspect and lack of CCTV cameras is said to be one of the reasons. The girl told the police that the person was not known to her, prima facie ruling out the involvement of the handful of male staffers. There are 25 female staffers too who stay in the residential premises and an office assistant doubling as security guard.
The hostel superintendent has been suspended.
An eight-member team headed by Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Gaurav Mandal has been constituted to probe the matter. It also includes Deputy Superintendent of Police (Special Juvenile Police Unit Sukma) Parul Khandelwal, said Mr. Chavan.
