School peon rapes minor girl in Odisha, locals torch police vehicle

A class 3 student of Odisha's Rayagada district was allegedly raped by a peon of the school where she studies leading to angry locals setting on fire a police vehicle, police said on Saturday.

The alleged rape of the eight-year-old dalit girl took place at an ashram school near Rayagada town on Friday, a senior police official said.

The locals were angry with the police for taking away the peon from them and set the vehicle on fire. They also vandalised a police jeep.

It prompted the police to wield their batons to disperse the mob and detain some persons for their alleged involvement in the violence, the police official added.

“Soon after the incident we arrested the accused and launched an investigation. Strong action will be taken against the people who vandalized the police vehicles,” Rayagada superintendent of police Vivekanand Sharma said.

The police official when asked said the condition of the victim, who was admitted to the hospital, is stable.

He said, the accused allegedly lured the girl to an empty room of the school when she was on her way to the school after lunch at her home on Friday and raped her. The girl's friends informed the school headmaster and her mother after they spotted her bleeding profusely and crying in pain.

As the news of the incident spread, the locals assembled in front of the police outpost at Dongasil and demanded that the school authority handover the accused to them. As the police did not comply to their repeated demand, the angry mob torched the police van and vandalised a jeep.

The official said, five police platoons (on platoon comprises of 30 personnel) under the leadership of the additional superintendent of police of Rayagada are camping near the school as the situation is still tense.

Fearing arrests almost all male residents have fled from the village.

The accused peon has been suspended and the school headmaster has been issued a show cause, an official said.

Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) of Rayagada, Bidulata Huika has expressed serious concern over the incident.

She along with a team of CWC members met the victim and her mother at the Rayagada government hospital.

The team assured them of justice.