Grave offence: Six-year-old boy ‘sexually assaulted’

Parents blame school for trying to cover up and delaying case registration .

ISLAMABAD: Parents of a six-year-old boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a peon at a private school have blamed the school administration for causing delay in registration of a police case and thus destroying ‘crucial’ evidence.

Ghulam Abbas, the victim’s father, told the Margalla police on June 9 that his son returned from Islamabad Convent School F-8/4 in a distraught and frightened condition on June 4 and told his mother that a man at the school had sexually assaulted him in the washroom.

“When the matter was taken up with the school principal, she delayed the matter for three days,” Abbas stated in the FIR registered on June 9.

The school administration, however, handed over the suspect to the police after the parents, annoyed at the school administration’s efforts to cover up the matter, called the police to the school on June 8.

Parents believe that due to the delay and negligence on part of the school administration, the important evidence that could help in reaching a conclusion might have been destroyed.

“In order to save their credibility, the school administration has played a negative role and delayed the matter,” Abbas told The Express Tribune. He thinks the evidence collected might be of no use because the case was registered five days after the incident.

The FIR was registered under Section 377 (unnatural offences) and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code and the suspect was sent on a three-day physical remand, which will expire today (Saturday).

Muhammad Aslam, the investigation officer for the case, said the suspect had not confessed to the allegation, adding that the statement of the victim’s mother had been recorded and the victim’s clothes sent to laboratory for examination. No school official was available for comment. However, the school posted a statement on its website which said: “You all are humbly informed hereby that the complaint against our employee was received from the parents of one of the students wherein serious and heinous allegations were levelled against him. Considering the gravity of allegations, the administration of the convent has opted to render the complaint to the police.”

It also said the suspect had been suspended from the school.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2015.