Patiala police widen probe as report confirms sexual abuse of schoolgirl

The police have widened probe into the alleged sexual abuse case of an 8-year-old girl at a Patiala-based private school by a physical education teacher.

A team of the police personnel visited the institute several times in the past few days to collect evidence.

The medical examination of the victim has revealed sexual abuse multiple times. “The fact that the crime is alleged to have happened multiple times inside the school premises raises doubt if some other person is involved too, who kept vigil or was directly involved. Since the child is still under trauma, we are taking time to get more details,” said a senior police officer.

After the police request, doctors will now send the DNA sample of the accused for a medical examination.

The incident had allegedly taken place allegedly at Auro Mirra School in SST Nagar, Patiala.

The FIR lodged on October 13 states that the victim was abused inside the school premises several times by the accused.

“The medical examination of the victim has revealed that she was sexually violated multiple times and a probe is currently on,” confirmed SP (City) Palwinder Cheema.

“We have questioned the school authorities and also confiscated the CCTV footage of the school premises. Prima facie, the victim has identified the accused, who was arrested earlier this week. A probe is now being held as per the laid down procedure under the POCSO Act,” Cheema said.

According to sources in the Police Department, they are now seeking help from government counsellors and the district child protection office to ascertain if any other student faced any kind of harassment inside the school.

“We are trying to speak to parents and other students through prescribed protocol and have requested them to come forward if they have anything to share with our teams pertaining to any other such incident,” a source said.

Lahori Gate SHO Shivraj Singh said their teams had visited the school premises many times to collect evidence and question the senior authorities there.

“We have extended the probe and the school has been asked to submit details of the entire staff and other employees. The probe is also on to identify if any other student has faced any harassment by the accused,” he said.

Auro Mirra School principal Chinmayie said they had suspended the instructor as soon as the matter came to their knowledge. “We have extended full support to the investigation agency and also to the victim’s family,” she said.