In an extremely shocking case, a four-and-a-half-year-old boy allegedly inserted his finger and a sharpened pencil inside his classmate’s private parts, in the washroom of a well-reputed school in Dwarka, west Delhi on 17 November.
The girl, who was left with a jagged pain in her private parts, finally opened up to her parents and told them about the incident. The parents have blamed negligence on the part of the school, and are reportedly seeking action against the same.
On Friday, The Quint published an interview it had conducted with Rajappa Srinivasan, the legal adviser of the school in question, where he claimed that the allegations made by the girl could have been been “taught”.
Also Read: Children Can Be Tutored: Lawyer of School in 4-Yr-Old’s Rape Case
In response to this, the girl’s mother has written a powerful rebuttal, where she explains point-by-point why her daughter hadn’t been ‘tutored’ to make up the incident and why she seeks action against the school.
The victim’s mother wrote in an email, “Dear media persons and authorities, I was appalled to hear the school’s lawyer talk nothing but pure nonsense in the interview given to The Quint.”
“Don’t victimise the victims (boy and girl) by giving a platform for an authority to get away. It is a grave injustice to my child,” she added before giving a point-by-point rebuttal of the legal advisor’s claims. This is what she said.
Why can’t a mother tutor a child to say something horrific as this?
To realise that her daughter is writhing in pain because someone, under the garb of exploring his curiosity, put in dirty hands and a sharpened pencil in her private parts is a traumatic thought. To make a four-year-old child mug up lines is unthinkable and an obnoxious thought in itself and shows the sick mentality of the person who said so. He is a lawyer who must be doing this for a living because that is his professional requirement, so he thinks what he does, others do too.
Why is it sexual assault?
Because the boy opened the girl’s pants, touched her bloomers and put his dirty hands and pencil in her private parts. He didn’t hurt her on the hands, or any exposed portion. The part of the body that was affected by this assault is not exposed; it is hidden. It takes a lot of courage to do something like this.
Why is the school at fault?
Because the school was negligent in having deployed a stiff, cold, unresponsive, and lethargic teacher on duty who kept on leaving the class in between on many occasions as the CCTV footage shows. The ayah (housekeeping staff) was manning three classes and also doing her chores. Why didn’t the school have two teachers on duty that day? If it was short of manpower, it should have shut the primary section that day.
What does the school mean by saying that the girl was happy?
By making such insensitive remarks, aren’t they belittling the girl’s trauma? She is hesitant at many places while stepping out of the class. She is the last one to step out as she has mentioned while narrating the trauma that it took longer for her to hook her pants; has the school taken note of it? It wasn’t an external injury that it would have been visible to one and sundry.
Can we only believe what the school is saying?
Why didn’t the school furnish the entire footage of the day, from the time she walked in at 9:07 am on 17 November 2017 to her stepping out of the premises. The footage that they furnished is only until 12:15 pm. The time where the kids assemble before being taken out to be handed over to parents is missing. Can the school explain this lapse? Is it deliberate? Why didn’t the police question it?
Which is the place of crime?
My daughter has mentioned it clearly that it happened in the classroom and washroom. She had shown the IO on Monday the place where she was sitting in the class that day; is the police pretending ignorance as much as the school is? The CCTV footage provided by the school only shows the girl’s washroom. Can’t it be boy’s washroom? Or we are trying to see what the management is doing to cover itself?
Reporting the incident?
In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t think of the school being a preying ground for such a horrendous incident. I reported it to the police. Why didn’t the school report it after I informed them? Why didn’t the school come to hospital or police station to ascertain my claims and if they had accorded it the “highest priority”? Why were they hell-bent on making me speak to the counselor as if he was responsible for the lapses or was the redressal authority?
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What about the medical report?
Did I tutor the doctor to write that my child was sexually assaulted? Can the school’s lawyer refute the medico-legal case (MLC) following which I had to lodge an FIR? Does he know what he is saying? Questioning my child, a mother, doctor and even the police? And all through giving a clean chit to its school.
Why did the police fail?
As a complainant, I had submitted my written complaint along with the MLC. The police needed to bring the school under its ambit of applied Acts; why did they victimise the boy?
My complaint in every sentence hinted at the school’s lackadaisical attitude. Why did the police overlook it? Why did they not have a child psychologist accompany the IO when they wanted her to show the place of crime in the school on Monday morning?
Why did they only file a case against the boy under 7; because they knew he would get scott-free, the case will fall flat. Why did the SHO call my husband to ask if he was employed at XYZ company (the school had asked him in the morning; the employment details were not mentioned anywhere else)? And in which position? How is it related to the investigation?
Why the possibility of this incident is NOT remote?
Because the school’s classroom is not covered by CCTV; how can we assume that it didn’t happen there? My daughter in her statement before the MM has mentioned it in detail. Is there any backing of the school’s claims?
Why didn’t the child cry or raise the alarm?
The child was hesitant to share her agony with a not-so-warm teacher, who I am sure wasn’t even friends with a primary school child and win her confidence to be told of something like this. Such a shame on that woman.
My daughter told me, my husband, policewomen, and the MM. She mentioned there was no teacher in the classroom (as the CCTV footage corroborates); and no ayah in the washroom. She hasn’t specified the boys’ or girls’. But she can’t be lying in narrating the same incident over and over again without changing her version. Imagine how deeply this trauma impacts her.
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