Barbaric Delhi: two children sodomised in school vans

Two separate incidents of sexual abuse of children, a three-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, came to light on Friday. The accused in both cases have been arrested.

Two separate incidents of sexual abuse of children, a three-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, came to light on Friday. The accused in both cases have been arrested.

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The boy was sodomised by a cab driver who used to ferry him every day from his residence to a playschool in south Delhi’s INA.

On Thursday, when the other two children who used to travel in the same cab did not come, the driver took the boy to his house, sodomised him and then dropped him to school, police said.

When the boy’s parents picked him up in the afternoon, he narrated the whole incident. Later, a medical examination confirmed sexual abuse.

In the second incident, the girl, a student of Class 1 of a top Ghaziabad school, was allegedly sexually abused by the driver and the conductor of the school bus.

The accused had been abusing the child for quite some time, but it was only after she developed a swelling on her private parts that she told her parents about it, police said.

"She said this happened inside the school bus. We have arrested the driver and conductor and booked them for unnatural offences and criminal intimidation," police said.

While the bus belonged to the school, the accused were hired through a contractor after the requisite police-verification procedure and had been working for the school for the last two years.

The Ghaziabad school principal said the parents registered a complaint with the school on Tuesday. "We immediately informed the police and handed over the two accused."

"We have strict norms for safety of children and a teacher is deputed in every bus. They ensure every child is dropped at the designated bus stop safely. We are puzzled how this incident happened," said the school's chief administrative officer.

Ghaziabad district magistrate Aparna Upadhyaya has ordered an inquiry. "We are also reiterating norms related to school buses to ensure every child is dropped safely."