Rape: Headmistress suspended for ‘negligence’ after raping 4-year-old at American Nagar school

Rudrapur: The Acting director of a government primary school in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand suspended for negligence after the alleged rape of a four-year-old girl on the school campus. The incident, involving alleged perpetrators — an 8-year-old in Grade 2, a 10-year-old in Grade 4 and a 12-year-old in Grade 5 — came to light on Monday, prompting a departmental investigation by education authorities.
District chief education officer (CEO) KS Rawat visited the school on Wednesday to conduct an inquiry. While the headmistress and two other teachers claimed that the incident took place after school hours, the family of the survivor disputed this and claimed that it took place between 10.30 and 11 am. The family also claimed that the headmistress left the school on her scooter around 11 am.
Police said the girl, who was not yet enrolled in school, was attending the primary school to familiarize herself with the area. However, the family presented the child’s school bag and books as evidence, claiming she attended school regularly, although she was not officially enrolled due to her age.
The then US Nagar SSP, Manjunath TC, said the incident took place when the girl was returning to her class after using the toilet. A case was registered against the three offenders on charges of gang rape under Section 70(2) of the BNS and Sections 5 and 6 of the Pocso Act.
During the inspection, Rawat noted that the school had high boundary walls and security gates, making it unlikely that anyone would leave the premises unnoticed. He concluded that there was a lack of supervision and discipline, which led to the education department suspending the acting headmistress on Friday night for negligence. The headmistress was also transferred to another school.
“Based on the inspection report, it was found that the acting headmistress was negligent. Had there been proper discipline, this unfortunate incident could have been avoided,” district education officer (basic) Harendra Kumar said, adding that an investigation was underway into a teacher who was present in the school that day.