Chhattisgarh: Hostel employee detained for failing to report a crime; school peon’s husband arrested for raping a girl

According to authorities, a 35-year-old male was detained on Thursday on suspicion of raping a first-grade girl last week in the dormitory of a government-run residential school in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district.

They said that the accused is the spouse of the peon at the school hostel.

According to an official, the female administrator of the school’s “ashram” (hostel) was also detained for allegedly delaying informing higher officials and police about the incident.

The event happened on the evening of July 22 when the 6-year-old tribal girl was residing in the dormitory of the “porta cabin” school, which was situated within the perimeter of the Errabor police station.

According to Sukma Superintendent of Police Kiran G. Chavan, the rape suspect has been identified as Madvi Hidma alias Raju, the spouse of a residential school peon.

Following the filing of a police report on the incident on July 24, a case was opened under the Indian Penal Code’s sections 376 AB (rape on a woman under the age of 12), 456 (house trespass), 363 (kidnapping), and 324 (voluntarily causing harm) as well as the POCSO Act’s protections for children.

He said a team of eight people led by Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Gaurav Mandal was assembled to look into the situation.

“The police narrowed down the suspect after interrogating more than 50 people, analyzing data from a similar number of mobile phones and tower dumps, and investigating the murder site. The culprit was also named by the victim,” Chavan stated.

According to the official, the accused was reportedly lodging at the hostel with his wife, which is not permitted since it is a ladies’ hostel and he is not a member of staff at the establishment that provides housing for 429 female students.

The inquiry also showed that hostel supervisor Heena (36) reportedly failed to notify higher officials and the police of the incident in a timely manner, which led to the inclusion of additional IPC and POCSO provisions in the FIR and her detention, according to Chavan.

The SP said that while he and female police officers had talked to and inquired with other lady students at the school, no other comparable complaint had surfaced.

A district administration official had previously said that the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the hostel had been suspended for allegedly delaying in telling the police about the incident.

Residential schools known as porta cabins are built in Left Wing Extremism-affected communities across the state’s Bastar division, which includes the Sukma region.

In Chhattisgarh, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has criticized the incumbent Congress for the event and said that the state’s law and order situation has disintegrated.

Ranjana Sahu, a female MLA for the BJP, led a team of party officials assembled to conduct an investigation that paid a visit to the residential school on Wednesday.