International school trustee arrested for raping 3-year-old in Mumbai

Almost a year after the 57-year-old trustee of an international school in Andheri allegedly raped a three-year-old student, he was arrested on Tuesday and remanded to police custody by a sessions court till November 14. The girl’s parents had lodged a complaint with the police earlier this year.

The arrested accused has been living in India for several years and allegedly raped the girl during Diwali last year.

He is a French national and his wife is an Indian, the police said.

Unhappy with the police investigations, the girl’s mother approached the Bombay high court, who last week pulled up the police for not arresting the alleged accused.

The police said they could not arrest him sooner because the girl’s mother approached the them in May this year, after which a FIR was filed.

The mother said the crime allegedly took place around Diwali 2016, but came to light only after she observed behavioural changes in her daughter earlier this year.

The police investigating the case refrained from arresting the accused because they said they had no proof against him because of the inordinate delay in filing of the FIR.

Another reason, the police said, was that the trustee was not cooperating with the probe and his statement had to be recorded twice.

However, the high court has now entrusted Milind Khetle, assistant commissioner of police, Meghwadi division, to probe the case.

A police officer said, “Further investigations will be carried out by the ACP. The investigation undertaken by the MIDC police since May will be taken into account.”

According to the FIR, the second accused, a female school teacher, took the girl to the room where the incident allegedly took place. The trustee allegedly sexually assaulted the girl, which amounts to rape under the amended law. In her complaint, the mother further alleged the accused duo also sexually assaulted a boy from her daughter’s class. The woman said she had a word with the boy’s mother, who allegedly noticed a similar behavioural change in her son. But the parents of this boy did not come forward when requested by the police and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

The police said the school does not have CCTV surveillance and they could not find any medical evidence.

Read more:
Andheri school rape case: 2 months on, psychiatrists complain about slow probe