Bangalore school chairman arrested in child's rape case

Rustom Kerawalla, chairman of Vibgyor High International School here, has been arrested in connection with the alleged rape of a six-year-old student by its two staff members over three weeks ago, a top police official said Wednesday.

"Our investigation team arrested Kerawalla at Daman & Diu off Goa Tuesday night and brought him to the city Wednesday for his culpability in the heinous crime," city police commissioner M.N. Reddi told reporters here.

A case has also been registered against the elite school in the city's upscale eastern suburb for not informing the victim's parents and the jurisdictional police about the incident, which occurred July 2 in a classroom in its premises.

"We have booked the school chairman for destruction of evidence, denial of information to police and a criminal act on a minor under his custody" Reddi said.

The school, affiliated to the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) has eight branches across the city and also runs similar institutions at Hyderabad in Telangana, Kolhapur, Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Vadodara in Gujarat.

One of the accused, Mustafa, 30, a skating instructor in the school, was arrested July 20.

Mustafa has also been accused of being a pedophile, as pornographic videos of children being raped were found in his mobile and laptop.

"We have stepped up the investigation and efforts are on to nab the other accused as we are also probing other staff members," Reddi said.

Denying delay or cover-up in the case, the top cop said no stone would be left unturned in unravelling the truth, bringing culprits to book and doing justice to the kid and her parents.

"We are going hammer and tongs in the case against the school management and the accused. We want to send a strong message to everyone that any crime against children, girls and women in schools, colleges or anywhere will be dealt with stringently and their perpetrators punished severely, Reddy claimed.

The school has remained shut since July 17 after hundreds of parents of wards reading in the school staged a protests against its management for attempting to cover-up the incident and protecting the accused.