Uttarakhand: Warden held for alleged sexual abuse of 2 brothers at special school

Child rights commission chairperson Geeta Khanna said that the accused had been working in the school since May 16 and his police verification wasn’t done

Dehradun: A 29-year-old warden of a school for children with special needs was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two students — brothers aged 13 and 9 — police said. Following the incident, the Uttarakhand school has been shut down.

The warden, Monu Pal, a resident of Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, was living near Kargi Chowk in Patel Nagar (HT Photo/ Representational image)

The warden, Monu Pal, a resident of Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, was living near Kargi Chowk in Patel Nagar.

Child rights commission chairperson Geeta Khanna said, “The accused had been working in the school since May 16. His police verification wasn’t done.”

“The school was being run by a trust registered in Delhi. Since this school is limited to pre-preparatory level only, no educational recognition was taken from the concerned authorities for its operation. The school has been closed,” Khanna added.

According to the police, the mother of the boys filed a complaint stating that she came to know about the special school online and enrolled her children in April. On May 30, when she went to meet them at the school, they confided in their mother.

“Given the seriousness of the crime, we immediately registered the FIR and started investigation into the matter. The minor victims were medically examined and the Child Welfare Committee apprised of the matter. We called an expert to communicate with the victims so that their statements can be registered. We also confiscated the DVR of the CCTV cameras. Upon examining the footage and gathering the visual evidence, we arrested the warden of the school for the crime,” senior superintendent of police Ajai Singh said.

A first information report (FIR) was registered against the warden under Sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 64(2)(A) (rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at Patel Nagar police station on May 30.

Superintendent of police (city) Pramod Kumar said the victims were sexually abused and also beaten.

Khanna said that the child welfare committee will speak to the other children at the school and a thorough investigation of the matter will be carried out. “Upon receiving the complaint, our team inspected the school that also houses a hostel. It came to light that the school was being run on the first floor of a rented building. During the inspection, we found the hostel in a very dilapidated condition. Neither have any kind of safety standards been followed there nor is there any provision of statutory permission. It was being run illegally,” she said.

“The mother of the victims had left them at this school in hope of their sensitive care. When she went there to meet them on May 30, the minors insisted their mother take them out. They then confided that the accused posted on night duty sexually abused them,” she added.