4-year-old rapes classmate: Summons issued to school by Delhi’s child rights commission

Delhi: Shocking incident has been reported from Delhi were a minor 4-year-old boy has been booked for sexually assaulting and raping his minor classmate who is of the same age.  Delhi’s child rights commission summons school authorities.

According to the police, the minor victim was sexually assaulted by her classmate in the school’s classroom as well as the bathroom in the absence of staff. The incident happened on Friday and is reported from a renowned school in west Delhi.

The victim reported of grave pain to her mother and narrated the whole incident. She told her mother that the boy used his finger and a sharpened pencil to assault her sexually which left wounds on the child’s private parts.

The Deputy Commissioner of police said legal experts were consulted in this case “since an offense was made out and there was a victim” and a rape case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered.
The police is now in dilemma of how to proceed with the case since the suspect is a 4-year-old minor.

Delhi Police spokesperson Dependra Pathak speaking of the incident said, “The Indian Penal Code (IPC) provides children below seven years of age certain protections against prosecutions. We are examining those provisions even as we are handling the matter with utmost sensitivity.”
The victim’s mother in her statement to the police said the her daughter reportedly complained of pain in her lower abdomen after returning from school on Friday.

At first, her mother ignored her cries thinking it was “one of her tantrums”, but the following night she told about the alleged assault, which shocked the mother. She told her mother that a boy from her class unbuttoned her pants in the classroom and used his finger to assault her.
“She tried pushing him, but could not get away as other children had left and there was no staff around,” the mother stated in the FIR.

The victim’s mother in her statement said that she had complained about the alleged assault to the schoolteacher through a text message that night. She also approached the school authorities, but instead of cooperating they asked her to give a written complaint about the incident on Monday.
She added that since are daughter’s pain was not reducing she rushed her to the hospital where she was treated and the authorities made a medico-legal case. It was then the Police registered the case.
The child’s mother alleges that there was no class teacher or an ayah present in the classroom or the washroom at the time of the assault.

However the school’s lawyer maintains that an ayah was present in every washroom of the school.

Dr Samir Parikh, Fortis Healthcare’s department of mental health and behavioural sciences Director speaking on the case said, “We must understand that it is absolutely not possible for a four-year-old to understand sexual behaviour. Is there a possibility of a sexual need being fulfilled in his case? Absolutely not.”