12-yr-old girl dies after 'rape' in school

Tue, Sep 28 06:22 AM

A woman has alleged that her 12-year-old daughter died after she was raped in a private school in Kanpur on Monday.

On a complaint filed by the girl's mother Shanu, a case of rape has been registered at Kalyanpur police station against unidentified staff members of the private school. The police is questioning some staff members and has sealed the school after finding blood in one of the classrooms.

Kanpur DIG Prem Prakash told The Indian Express: "Prima facie, it appears to be a case of rape. But the postmortem will confirm it and also the cause of death. The postmortem will be carried out by a panel of doctors."

A resident of Roshan Nagar area of Kalyanpur, the victim was a class VI student of Bharatiya Gyan Sthaliya School, located near the Namak Factory Chauraha. She went to school in the morning. Later in the day, Shanu, who works in a shopping mall, received a call from school that her daughter wasn't feeling all right and was, therefore, being dropped at her residence by the staff.

Shanu told media persons: "The neighours informed me that two school maids dropped my daughter on a cot lying outside my residence and left. No one was present at home at that time. When I arrived around 1pm, I was shocked to find my daughter lying unconscious there. She was not in the school uniform but in some other clothes. Her uniform which had blood marks was kept in her school bag."

Shanu called her brother Ranu, who lives nearby, and they rushed the girl to a nursing home, but it was closed due to the strike by private doctors. So they took her to Lala Lajpat Rai hospital, but she died on the way.

"My daughter was perfectly fine when she went to the school in the morning," Shanu said. She blamed the school for her rape and death.

ADM (City) S K Singh said the police and administration team arrived at the school around 5pm. Since the school building was locked, the police team broke the lock. Inside, the police found blood stains in a classroom. "The school building was then sealed by the police team," he added.

Bharatiya Gyan Sthaliya School is owned by Chandra Pal Verma who is also the principal of the school. Late in the night, Verma, his family members and school staff were brought to the Kalyanpur police station for interrogation.

Police said the two school maids who dropped the girl at her residence are also being questioned