New Delhi: Maharashtra police has registered first information reports against more than 400 protesters and arrested at least 66 of them as agitation escalates against the sexual abuse of two four-year-old girls, allegedly by an employee of their school.
Police have filed four FIRs, Indian Express reported. Those arrested have been charged with sections of rioting, damaging public property, and causing hurt to public servants, the report said.
Badlapur, in Thane district of Maharashtra, has been seeing protests since early August 20 (Tuesday). Internet, which had been turned off across the town since evening yesterday, has now been restored.
Train services were disrupted for around 10 hours, the rail authorities said. Twelve express and mail trains were diverted, and 30 local trains were partially cancelled. Police resorted to lathicharge across Badlapur, reports say.
The 23-year-old school janitor assaulted the two children on August 12 and 13 at the girls’ bathroom, reports said. Much of the anger of protesters has also focused on the fact that there was no women supervisors at the toilets.
India Today has reported that the matter came to light when one of the girls complained of pain and spoke of it to her parents, who then discovered that another girl had been similarly assaulted. The man was arrested on August 16 and produced before a Kalyan court yesterday.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has sent a team to Badlapur for an inquiry.
Three police officials, including a senior police inspector, have been suspended over alleged dereliction of duty in probing the case.
