KATHMANDU, Sept 8: Metropolitan Police Circle Office, Balaju on Monday arrested a teacher of Balaju-based Abhiyan Public School in charge of raping a 12-year-old student residing in the school hostel.
The arrested has been identified as Dambar Bahadur Khadka, 25, of Sanoshree VDC of Bardiya district. Khadka, who was also working as a hostel warden of the school since the last four years, was accused of raping the minor who had joined the hostel since Aug 26.
The incident came to light after the seventh grader declined to return back to the hostel and was found to be living in one of her friends' home, according to the police.
Although the victim's mother and sister live nearby the school, she was admitted to the hostel as per the teacher's suggestion to improve her Nepali subject. The next day after the incident, the student left the school to meet her mother and never returned back.
“When the student didn't return to the hostel again, the school and her family sought our help to find the missing student,” said the DSP Santosh Tamang, chief of Metropolitan Police Circle Office, Balaju. “Once we found the girl residing in one of her friends' home, we enquired about the reason for leaving the hostel,” DSP Tamang added.
The student then explained that Khadka had raped her on the night of September 2 while there were only six students at the hostel and all of them were below fifth grade while the rest of the students had gone to their respective homes to celebrate Teej festival.
According to the victim student, the warden instructed other small students to go and sleep in her room together for their safety.
When all of the small students slept, the teacher forcefully showed her vulgar movies and raped her after threatening her, reveals the statement recorded by the police.
Inspector Rishi Ram Ghale Magar of the Circle office, who has been handling the case, said that medical report is yet to come but statement from the victim and other circumstances support the claim.
But the hostel warden has refused to accept the allegation.
Meanwhile, Gopal Neupane, the director of the school, has said that the warden should be punished if he is proved guilty.
“I had hired him as a hostel warden after finding him decent and well mannered. He was good at mathematics and science too but it's hard for me to believe that he was such an inhuman person,” the school director added.
The police officials said that hostels are vulnerable in lack of monitoring mechanism and adequate security. The warden has been remanded to five days in custody for further investigation.
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