Sexual abuse of girls at school: Police lathi-charge protesters at Badlapur railway station

NEW DELHI: Police lathi-charged protesters at Badlapur railway station near Mumbai on Tuesday evening to break up the day-long rail roko agitation against the alleged sexual abuse of two girls at a kindergarten.

Police used force to disperse hundreds of protesters at around 6 PM, hours after they hurled stones at the railway station while rejecting pleas of the state government and senior police officers to call off the agitation, which affected the services of local trains and forced diversion of some outstation trains, an official said.

The local train traffic remained affected for several hours on a Central Railway section in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region as demonstrators, including many women, stayed put on tracks throughout the day. They demanded capital punishment for the arrested attendant of the school.

The tracks at Badlpaur station were finally cleared of demonstrators after 6 pm, the police official said.

In the wake of the protest, police and RPF personnel were deployed in large numbers at the railway station and the school, which was vandalised by protesters earlier in the day.

Angry parents of the school children and local citizens, including several women, gathered outside the school on Tuesday morning and also resorted to a 'rail roko' protest at the railway station, blocking the path of local trains from around 8.30 am.

Some of the protesters, including women, later damaged the school property by breaking its gate, window panes, benches and doors, police said.

At the railway station, some of the agitators hurled stones during the protest.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police, zone IV, Sudhakar Pathare, told reporters that a case had been registered against the accused, who was nabbed "within three-and-a-half hours of registering the FIR".

He said three police officers, including two women, are gathering all evidence to ensure a comprehensive probe.

Pathare in a statement urged the residents of Badlapur to avoid taking to the streets or engaging in protests, as such actions could hinder the investigation process.

He emphasised that the police administration is fully engaged in addressing the case and any form of agitation or bandh could obstruct the progress of the investigation given prohibitory orders in place.

The DCP rejected allegations of a 12-hour delay in registering the FIR.

The registration process began at 11:30 pm and the accused was arrested by 3:30 am.

The complexity of gathering information from very young victims, who are between 3 and 4 years old, contributed to the time required for case registration, he claimed.