Badlapur assault: School vehicle ran without permit

Protests ensue; van vandalised by an angry mob; police deployment in area to avoid untoward incidents

- Danish Azmi

A day after a 4-year-old girl, a student of a private English medium school, was allegedly sexually assaulted by her school van driver inside the vehicle in Badlapur, the Kalyan Regional Transport Office (RTO) has said that the vehicle used for the crime was found to be operating without a valid permit or fitness certificate.

Priyanka Damle, Deputy Chairperson and Education Committee Head of the Badlapur Municipal Council, also alleged that the school in question is operating unauthorisedly.

On January 22, the victim, a nursery student at a private school in Badlapur (West), was heading home after school hours in a van. According to police sources, the driver took advantage of the absence of a female attendant - a mandatory safety requirement - to assault the child. Panic struck the parents when the girl failed to reach home on time.