Ghaziabad: School van driver held for sexually abusing five-year-old girl

The principal told police that the van has been hired on contract to ferry children. Police are in the process of getting the statements recorded and based on evidence, suitable action will be initiated against the erring school officials

A five-year-old girl was allegedly sexually abused and raped by her school van driver over the past one week and after her family approached the Ghaziabad police with a complaint on Thursday, the driver was arrested, senior police officers said.

IBased on the family’s complaint, police registered an FIR at Kavi Nagar police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 65(2) (rape of a woman under twelve years of age) and also levied provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for penetrative sexual assault against the arrested driver. (AFP/Getty Images/representational image)

Based on the family’s complaint, police registered an FIR at Kavi Nagar police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 65(2) (rape of a woman under twelve years of age) and also levied provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for penetrative sexual assault against the arrested driver.

HT has withheld the identity of the suspect driver to protect the identity of the child.

Police said the child is a prep student of a private school in Ghaziabad and the van driver was allegedly sexually harassing her for the past one week.

The family told police that the driver always picked up the girl first on the way to school in the morning and dropped her last after school hours in the afternoon.

“During these times, my child used to be alone in the van and the driver used to sexually abuse her. About six to seven students travel daily in the van. The incident with my daughter has been going on for the past almost one week and we got to know of it only we saw injuries on her genital area. We approached the police and got an FIR registered. The van belongs to the school and the school authorities did not contact us even after the driver was arrested on Thursday,” the girl’s father said.

“We send our children to school on the understanding that the school will be responsible about safety of children. My child is in a state of shock and I am not sending her to that school again,” the girl’s father said.

The family reached the Kavi Nagar police station on Thursday afternoon again and demanded action against school authorities.

The school management could not be reached for their comment.

Police said they have questioned the school principal in connection with the case.

“The principal told us that the van has been hired on contract to ferry children. We are in the process of getting the statements recorded and based on evidence, suitable action will be initiated against the erring school officials. The girl has also stated that the driver sexually abused her. Her medical examination has been conducted,” said Abhishek Srivastava, assistant commissioner of police, Kavi Nagar.