A hostel superintendent was arrested Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting a class V student of Don Bosco School at Sagardighi in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, the police said.
“Father J. Soren was arrested Monday and booked for sexual assault after being accused by the father of a 10-year-old boy, a boarder in the school’s hostel, of calling him — to his room and sexually assaulting him,” additional superintendent of police Mrinal Majumdar told IANS.
Soren has been charged under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with sodomy and carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. The incident happened Wednesday night when Soren called the child and allegedly assaulted him sexually. The child later told about the incident to his father — a resident of Raghunathganj, some 277 km from Kolkata — following which a police complaint was lodged. Earlier, a high school teacher in North 24 Parganas was arrested and later granted bail for allegedly strip-searching a class VIII girl in front of other teachers.
Founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the Vishwa-Bharati University hogged the limelight after a Class 5 student of the affiliated Patha Bhavan was made to lick her own urine as punishment for bed-wetting by a warden Uma Poddar. Poddar was arrested and later granted bail. The incident attracted severe criticism from all quarters and also reached the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has sought detailed reports from the university and the state government.