NHRC issues notice to Bihar govt over Supaul incident

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Tuesday issued a notice to the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government over the alleged thrashing of 34 girl students in state's Supaul district.

"The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, India has taken suo motu cognizance of media reports that on the 6th October 2018 at least 34 girl students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Supaul district of Bihar were brutally beaten up by some local youths when they opposed their routine sexual advances and lewd comments," the Commission said in a statement.

"Their tormentors included students of the adjacent Middle School and their parents. The mob had reportedly a free run, vandalizing the school which is exclusively for the girls belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBC and minority communities," it added.

The Commission issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, Bihar and sought a detailed report in the matter including the status of medical treatment of the injured students, measures taken to step up security at the hostel schools and action taken against the accused.

"The contents of the media reports, if true, amount to violation of human rights of the victim girls and the sequence of incident points to serious security lapse at the girls' school where the miscreants entered at their free will, committed the brutal act and fled from the spot," it added.

Last week, a group of boys allegedly entered a school with the intention of molesting the girls. As the girls, mostly, aged between 12 to 14 objected to it, they were allegedly beaten up by the mob and left seriously injured.

On Monday, the Bihar Police arrested 10 people in connection with the incident.