Bangalore rape: cops play safe, detain man but no arrests yet

Bangalore police have arrested a staff member of the nursery school where a three-year-old girl was raped earlier this week.

The city police is yet to formalise the arrest of a 45-year-old man who is the prime suspect in the case where a three-year-old was raped at the international school where she studied on Tuesday.

Although the suspect, who performs odd jobs on campus, has been the focus of the investigations since Wednesday, police sources said that there isn't yet any clinching evidence against him.

Additional Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar was left to control the damage after chief minister Siddaramaiah told reporters late on Thursday that the suspect had been arrested.

"We have not arrested anybody. The investigations are still on. But we are repeatedly interrogating one male staffer," Kumar told reporters on Friday.

The police's cautious approach appears to be informed by the mess that was created by a premature arrest in the July 2 case where a six year old schoolgirl was raped on campus.

The man, who the police had initially accused of being part of an international child pornography racket, had to be set free after it emerged that somebody else was responsible for the crime.

Meanwhile, the education department filed a criminal case against the school on Friday for violating norms. Commissioner of Public Instruction, Mohammed Mohsin said that the school does not have permission to run pre-primary classes. He said that the school only had permission to run Kannada medium classes for students from Class 1 to 5. Instead, the management was offering CBSE syllabus courses for children until the 7th standard.

There have been angry protests in Bangalore since the case was reported on Tuesday, after the child's mother found her feverish crying.

The child complained to her mother that she was physically abused, and after medical examination confirmed sexual assault, police registered a case and started questioning the staff and faculty at the school.

This is the third such instance in Bangalore schools over the last four months. In a previous incident, a six-year old was raped allegedly by two gym instructors at another school, leading to widespread protests.