A 51-year-old man who was the head and owner of a private ashram school has been arrested for raping two young girls at the residential institution in Chatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Aurangabad. The incident occurred in the early hours of August 21, according to Superintendent of Police Vinay Kumar Rathod.
Upon learning of the assault, the students and their families immediately reported the incident to the police, resulting in the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) and the subsequent arrest of the accused, as reported by TOI.
According to the complaint filed by one of the students, the accused woke her up around 1 am on August 21, took her to his room, and asked her to massage his legs. After entering the room, the accused locked the door and sexually assaulted her. He then called the second girl and subjected her to a similar assault.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the accused threatened the girls with expulsion if they disclosed the assault. A female police officer stated, “The students do not have cellphones, so they couldn’t immediately contact their parents. On Saturday, when one of the students’ parents visited the ashram, the girl confided in them.”
Initially, the accused provided evasive answers when questioned by the parents, and even attempted to dissuade them from filing a complaint. However, the family members persisted and lodged a complaint against the accused at the Kannad rural police station.
The accused has been booked under multiple sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for rape and sexual assault against two minor students, aged 13 and 14. He will be brought before the court on Sunday, according to officials.
Authorities reported that the accused has been operating the private ashram school for the past decade. It caters to students from farming families in the surrounding areas who attend a nearby school and then return to the residential ashram.
According to reports, the ashram is one of the many that has recently come up in the rural area of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
