Bihar: 36 schoolgirls assaulted after they resisted sexual harassment in Supaul

At least 36 girls of a residential school in Bihar’s Supaul district were allegedly assaulted after they resisted the attempts of some local boys to sexually harass them, the police said.

The Darbhanga zonal Inspector General told news agency ANI that the girls used to go to a playground nearby where some boys would write obscene words on walls. The girls would rub them off. This happened for 2-4 days.

The girls, aged between 10 and 14 years and are studying in Classes 6 to 9, of Kasturba Gandhi Girls Residential School, Triveniganj in Supaul district were admitted to a local hospital following the incident on Saturday.

On Sunday, the police arrested four youths in connection with the attack. Supaul district magistrate (DM), Baidynath Yadav said more arrests would be made soon.

“Yesterday, they asked a boy to stop doing that. After that the boy, his mother and some other women beat them up. At least 14 children are still being treated at a hospital. The accused have been identified and an FIR has been registered,” The Darbhanga zonal IG said.

Girls used go to a playground nearby, some boys used to write obscene words on walls.Girls used to rub it off.This was happening since 2-4 days: Darbhanga zonal IG on at least 30 schoolgirls of a govt school in Supaul thrashed by miscreants for allegedly resisting sexual advances pic.twitter.com/M0wYhUV7VZ

— ANI (@ANI) October 7, 2018

Reports suggest some of the miscreants were armed with batons and they also beat up some teachers of the school when they tried to intervene and save the girls.

One of the girls, beaten up by the miscreants, said: “The boys often used to write obscene words on the walls. We stopped them from doing that and they thrashed us. There were some women with them who beat us up too and manhandled our teachers.”

The incident triggered protests from several social organisations and also raised a question mark on the security at the government school, reported Hindustan Times.

Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav condemned the government in strongest terms. In a series of tweets, Tejashwi Yadav said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has "totally surrendered himself in the hands of goons & Deputy CM is begging mercy to hardened criminals".