New Delhi, March 1
A seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a man in a North Delhi Municipal Corporation school at Mangolpuri on the outskirts of Delhi during lunch hours yesterday.

A damaged bus after Friday’s protests in Delhi’s Mongolpuri area. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

The traumatised girl was shown five persons, including a teacher, a watchman and two peons, but she was unable to identify the culprit.

The victim is a class II student of Nigam Pratibha Vidyalaya. The police has detained around five persons in connection with the case.

Investigators said: “The victim told her parents that during school lunch hour around 10.30 am yesterday, a person came into her classroom and took her away. He allegedly took her to the first floor of the school where he raped her after tying her hands and gagging her mouth. He threatened her not to report the incident to anyone.”

When the girl returned home, her mother questioned her when she found her upset. The family became suspicious when they noticed blood stains on her clothes. The girl later narrated the incident to her father.

In the morning, the family took the girl to the school and questioned the authorities about the episode. School officials denied that any such incident had taken place in the school.

Hundreds of local residents and friends of the victim’s family gathered outside the school and started raising slogans against the school authorities. The girl was taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital at Mangolpuri where a medical examination confirmed that she was sexually assaulted. A case of rape has been registered.

About 300 policemen had to be deployed around the hospital to control the protesters. The police had to baton-charge them. Several vehicles, including three Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses and two PCR vehicles were damaged in the clash.

The hospital had to be shut down from 1 pm to 3 pm.