The Supaul police on Monday held seven more persons including three women over the thrashing of students of a central government-run girls’ residential school on Saturday, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 10.
The arrested persons include the two main accused, Hari Om and Mohan Kumar, who allegedly instigated the mob to attack the students after some girls of the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhyalaya thrashed a bunch of boys for writing lewd messages on the school wall at Triveniganj in Supaul, around 280 km northeast of the state capital.
The seven arrests on Monday were made after the police raided Darpakha village adjacent to the school. “The police have arrested all nine persons who were named accused in the case. One person who is not named accused has been arrested after the girls identified the man,” Triveniganj police station house officer (SHO) Vasistha Munirai said.
The SHO said security has been tightened on the school premises where around 100 students — from Class VI to Class VIII — study. Seven policewomen have been deployed on the campus, while four policemen will be on duty outside the campus. Two officers and one sub-divisional-rank officer too have been deployed to assess the law and order situation in the area.
Four of the 80 students who were beaten up on Saturday and were undergoing treatment at Supaul Sadar Hospital were discharged on Monday.
“The four girl students who were undergoing treatment at Supaul Sadar Hospital where discharged today at around 1pm. None of them had any critical injuries,” said Supaul civil surgeon Dr Ghanshyam Jha.
According to the civil surgeon, 80 of the 100 students of the school were injured and 24 were let go after first-aid. A total of 56 girls were admitted to the primary health centre, and most of them were released on Sunday morning.
Three were released on Sunday evening, while the final four were released on Monday afternoon.
The girls of the school are, however, yet to recover from the trauma.
“We still remember the night when the group attacked us. We were helpless as there was only one warden and teacher at the school and they too were helpless,” said a student who requested anonymity for obvious reasons.
Parents of many of students reached the school after they came to know about the incident, sources said.
Many parents were ready to take their daughters home the school administration persuaded them not to.
Kishor to defence
Prashant Kishor, the election strategist-turned-star JDU member, on Monday replied after a journalist tagged his Twitter handle to castigate chief minister Nitish Kumar over the incident.
“Everytime a state fails to protect the most vulnerable of its people, it serves as a reminder for it to be more proactive and work harder. I join my voice with all those who are appalled at this horrific incident,” Kishor tweeted.
He followed it up with another tweet: “Having said that @nitishkumar does not require me or anyone else to “wake” his conscience. To the best of my knowledge, Govt. is taking necessary action to bring the perpetrators to justice. 9 people have already been arrested.”
