Patna, Dec. 4: A committee formed by the Bihar State Legal Services Authority has found allegations of sexual assault on a 4-year-old student of St Xavier's High School by her school teachers to be "prima facie true", sources in the panel told The Telegraph.
The medical examination of the kindergarten student had confirmed sexual assault, and two women teachers of the school had been arrested on November 5.
A local court had remanded the duo in judicial custody on the basis of statements recorded by the child and her parents. Both teachers have been in jail since then.
The Bihar State Legal Services Authority is a statutory body under the central Legal Services Authorities Act, which is aimed at providing free and competent legal services to weaker sections of the society to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen because of economic or other problems.
The authority conducted the inquiry into the St Xavier's case suo motu and had formed a committee, which submitted its report on December 1.
Acting Chief Justice Hemant Gupta is the patron-in-chief of the authority, and the second senior-most judge, Navaniti Prasad Singh, is the executive chairman of the authority.
Sources said the child, in her statement to the police, had said that she was sexually assaulted by one of her teachers - whom she referred to as "Chhoti Miss" - many times.
Confirming that the report had been submitted to the Bihar State Legal Services Authority, its registrar Sumit Ranjan said: "The authority is empowered to probe cases related to children and women under its Act. This was a case of child sexual assault. So taking suo motu cognisance of the case, the authority had formed a committee to probe the matter. The authority has received the report of the probe committee but as of now, I cannot share details with you."
A member of the probe committee, however, told The Telegraph under cover of anonymity: "During investigations, it came to the fore that Chhoti Ma'm (the teacher the student referred to) was not happy with her conjugal life. That might be the reason behind her sexual perversion, which we have mentioned in our report."
The probe committee member said the team had also found that the school did not follow the necessary criteria to prevent sexual harassment in the institution.
"The school did not form any child abuse monitoring cell according to the child protection policy under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act," the member added.
Bihar State Legal Services Authority has two options of taking action on the basis of this report.
"It may direct the Patna district magistrate to take action against the organisation where the incident took place and no action was taken," said a source in Bihar State Legal Services Authority.
"Else, the report may be submitted to the executive chairman of Bihar State Legal Services Authority who can pass an order regarding action to be initiated in such cases. No such decision has been taken in this case as of now."
