40 girls hospitalised after mob thrashed them in Bihar for resisting harassment

Patna: Nitish Kumar government, which is facing flak over rising cases of crime against women, was in for another setback after a group of girl students was beaten up for resisting eve-teasing and sexual harassment in Bihar’s Supaul district.

Police said that over 40 girls who sustained injuries in the attack were later admitted to a local hospital for treatment. The district administration also claimed that “one person has been taken into custody. Others involved in the case have also been identified and will be arrested soon”.

The girls – all aged between 12 to 16 years, are students of Kasturba Gandhi School in Daparkha village of Triveniganj.

Sources from Supaul informed The Asian Age that youths from a nearby village used to pass lewd remarks and write vulgar comments on the school wall about girls. On Saturday, over two dozen local villagers ransacked the school and thrashed the girls when they tried to their raise their voices against the issue.

“Girls were beaten up by villagers while they were playing on Saturday. Villagers were furious because these girls tried to raise their voices against the harassment they faced on regular basis”, school sources said.

The issue has snowballed into a political controversy as opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday blamed the state government for its failure in maintaining law and order in the state.

In a tweet, he said that anti-social elements ransacked the Kasturba Gandhi Girls School in Supaul and thrashed 34 students. “The state government is silent and the crime graph is rising in Bihar”.

He further said, “This kind of incident keeps happening because Chief Minister personally interferes and ensures that rapists and perpetrators get a free run. In majority cases, his party men, lawmakers and office bearers are main culprits. Honest officers who have been taking action against them are often transferred”.

Earlier this year, cases of sexual abuse inside several government-funded shelter homes had rocked the state. In a Muzaffarpur-based shelter home rape case, over 34 minor girls told the police said that they were raped by officials and employees of the facility.

In another case, around 15 minors living in Bodh Gaya monastery were molested by a monk.