MP: 5-yr-old girl tells mother about 'bad touch'; school watchman's minor son held

RATLAM: Police have detained a teenage boy for allegedly sexually assaulting a five-year-old girl on the premises of a school in Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam city, an official said.

The incident came to light after the girl told her mother about "bad touch" by the boy, the official said on Sunday.

The accused is the son of a watchman at the private school, where the victim is a UKG (upper kindergarten) student.

The incident allegedly occurred in the watchman's room on the third floor of the school building and was reported by the girl to her mother on the night of September 27, Additional Superintendent of Police Rakesh Khakha said.

The school has CCTV cameras covering only the ground floor and not the upper floors, the official said.

"The accused is a student of class 10 with another branch of the same school. An investigation was conducted after the girl's mother lodged a complaint that her daughter was sexually assaulted in the school where she is a UKG student. The accused boy has been taken into custody," he said.

The boy has been booked under sections 65-ii (Whoever commits rape on a woman under twelve years of age) and 75 (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the police said.

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari expressed anguish and accused the BJP government of failing to protect daughters.

"The news of a tragic incident with a 5-year-old girl in Ratlam has deeply disturbed me. Such incidents happen with our daughters every day in MP. I am deeply pained," he stated on X on Sunday.

"Daughters will not get justice by just asking for help from the government on social media. Now the Congress party will fight this battle on the streets," he said.