School bus staffers held for sodomising DPS student

A six- year old student of Delhi Public School (DPS) in Vasundhara was allegedly sexually assaulted by the driver and conductor of her school bus in the parking of the school. Reportedly, the accused have been carrying out these acts with impunity for the last one-and-a-half months, said police. 

Police have now arrested both the driver and conductor on the basis of the complaint lodged by the parents of the girl. A case of sodomy has been also been registered. 

The culprits, in their mid twenties, have been identified as Rajesh, a resident of Surya Nagar area and Ashok, a resident of Prahalad Gari in Ghaziabad. They hail from Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh. 

Police officers investigating the case suspect that more students might have been victimised by the accused. They have now summoned the principal of the school and the transporter for interrogation regarding the matter.

‘The bus operates at two different times. Some students are released at 1.30 pm and the rest at 2 pm. The bus conductor and driver used to sexually assault the girl in the bus in the parking, while they were waiting for rest of the students,’ said Gorakh Nath Yadav, Station House Officer of Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad. 

‘We have registered an FIR under Section 377 of IPC, on the basis of the police complaint of the victim’s parents. The girl was sent for medical check up. The final report is yet to come. We may add Section 376 of IPC, once rape is established in the medical report,’ added Yadav. 

The victim is a Class I student of DPS Ghaziabad and a resident of in sector 7, in Vasundhara. Her father is employed in a reputed private company.

According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Delhi Public School Society in Ghaziabad, R K Sharma, the school had hired the bus, driver and conductor from a contractor. The victim used to reach school by 8 am and leave by 1.30 pm. They used to assault her in the half-an-hour gap before the final shift of day. Police investigation revealed that sometimes, they used to drop her after dropping all the other students.

‘The girl used to complain about unusual pain in the abdomen and other body parts. When the pain did not subside after a few days, her mother asked her in detail, and she narrated everything,’ said Yadav. The parents then lodged a police complaint on Thursday and subsequently the driver and conductor of the bus were arrested.

In another incident, a 30-year-old school cab driver was arrested on Friday for allegedly sodomising a four-year-old student in south district’s Kotla Mubarakpur area on Friday.According to police, the accused, identified as Subodh, has been driving a school cab since April this year. On Thursday, a boy whom he used to pick and drop to the school from his house in Kidwai Nagar was found crying. He was dropped by Subodh from school. His father then found that he had been sexually assaulted. He then took the child to a nearby hospital, where doctors confirmed his suspicions.They approached the police and informed about the incident. Police have now registered a case and arrested the accused.