Principal, four students held in Bihar rape case

Patna: Six persons including the school principal and four students along with one teacher have been arrested on the charge of raping a minor student of a private school in Chapra district of Bihar. According to the police, “FIR has been lodged against 19 persons out of which six were arrested and search is on for thirteen others”.

The police said that the victim, a student of a local private school, Dipeshwar Niketan, in Parasgarh village under Ekma Police station, has been facing the trauma since December last year but matter came to light after her parents approached the police and registered an FIR on Friday. The 14-year-old victim in her statement to the police said that the entire incident of gangrape was filmed by one of the students who used it to blackmail her following which she was raped by other students.

When she approached the school principal Uday Singh, he along with three other school teachers raped her. “The matter is still under investigation but we have arrested the school principal and others. Anything more on the issue can be said only after we complete our investigation,” Chapra Dy. SP Ajay Kumar Singh told reporters on Saturday. The incident has triggered a political storm in Bihar with opposition parties blaming the state administration for not taking appropriate measure to stop rising crime against women.

RJD Spokesperson Shakti Yadav told this newspaper, “Repeated incident of molestation and gang rape has created a fear among the people in Bihar. Chapra incident only exposes the government's failure.  “Imagine a minor girl being raped by the school principal and teachers along with her classmates. How will you rate law and order of Bihar.” The Chapra gangrape incident is being termed as one of the “most heinous” act of crime against women to have occurred in last few months in Bihar.  Data maintained by the police shows that 289 cases of rape have been registered till March this year. In 2017 as many as 1198 cases were registered.