School sweeper arrested for molesting Class III student

Gurugram: It has been barely a month since incident of gruesome murder of Pradyuman in the washroom of Ryan International School shook the trust of parents about the security of their children in the premises of school.

The vulnerability of school students in the city was once again exposed after a sweeper who was working in a private school in DLF Phase-2 was arrested for molesting a class 3 student. The culprit has been identified as 40-year-old Suresh Kumar hailing from Jharkhand. Shockingly, the police claim that there may be a possibility of him sexually exploiting more girls.

Arrested on Thursday, the accused has been charged under section 10 of protection of children from sexual offences (POSCO) act. On Thursday, the district court granted the permission to the police to send the culprit under 14 days of remand. At present he is lodged in Bhondsi jail.

The crime may have gone unnoticed, had the victim not understood the difference between the good touch and the bad touch.

According to the police, the victim had the sense to realise that she was being exploited on multiple occasions by her tormentor. This led her to have discussions with her parents and teachers that subsequently resulted in the school authorities registering the complaint against the culprit.

The shocking incident has once again rocked the state of Haryana that is grappling with rising crimes against school children.

The state government is yet to recover from horrific incident of murder of 7-year-old student Pradyuman in Gurgaon, and sexual molestation of 9-year-old girl in a private school in Panipat, which was reported in September.

Leaving aside the tragic incident of killing of class 2 students, in Gurugram also this is not for the first time when the lapses in security have been exploited. In 2016, a 5-year-old girl was raped by the bus conductor in the school bus of the private school.

To enhance the security measures, the district administration has issued an ultimatum of 15 days to improve its deficiencies relating to protection of students. Some of the major steps include verification of the staff employees, installing the CCTV cameras and having adequate number of female staff for attending the school students.

Gurugram: The murder of a class 2 student and sexual molestation of a class 3 girl child within the school premises that occurred in quick succession again highlighted the vulnerabilities of school students in the city.

In a larger picture however these incidents only provide a dismal picture of rising crime against children. Witnessing a sudden rise in 2017, there have already been more than 95 cases of sexual crimes that have been registered under POSCO act. In 2016, there were total of 106 crimes under this act.

Shockingly, the tribulations does not end here and there have also been various situations where young children of as young as 4-year-old have been brutally murdered.

In the beginning of the year fear had gripped among the city residents after decomposed bodies of children that included a dead body of 5-year –old was recovered from the posh localities like Sushant Lok and Civil Lines.

In one of the cases that was solved by the Gurugram police, shocking detail were revealed by the law enforcement officials of the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl child.

According to the law enforcement officials, the girl was abducted from her locality, kept in a secluded place and gang raped on multiple occasions by a culprit along with his two accomplices. Fearing that their criminal act will come out in the open, they strangled the girl and dumped her body in the water tank.