9 arrested for beating Bihar schoolgirls who resisted sexual harassment

Patna: Nine people, including a minor, have been arrested so far in the assault cases of 40 schoolgirls in Bihar.

The girls were beaten up by local villagers for protesting against sexual harassment by local youth in Bihar’s Supaul district.

Sources from Supaul informed Deccan Chronicle that youth from a nearby village used to pass lewd remarks and write vulgar comments on the school wall about girls.

On Saturday, over two dozen local villagers ransacked the school and thrashed the girls when they tried to raise their voices against the harassment.

“Girls were beaten up by villagers while they were playing on Saturday. The villagers were furious because these girls tried to raise their voices against the harassment they faced on a regular basis,” school sources said.

Police said girls – all of them 12 to 16 years old - were admitted to a local hospital and 26 of them have now been released.

The district administration also claimed that “one person has been taken into custody. Others involved in the case have also been identified and will be arrested soon”.

The issue has snowballed into a political controversy as Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday blamed the state government-led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for its failure in maintaining law and order in Bihar.

In a tweet, he said that anti-social elements ransacked the Kasturba Gandhi Girls School in Supaul and thrashed 34 students. “The state government is silent and the crime graph is rising in Bihar.”

He further said that “this kind of incident keeps happening because Chief Minister personally interferes and ensures that rapists and perpetrators get a free run. In majority cases, his partymen, lawmakers and office-bearers are main culprits. Honest officers who have been taking action against them are often transferred.”