A director and a teacher of a village school in Sikar district in Rajasthan were arrested on Tuesday evening on the charge of raping a Class 12 student and then forcing her to abort, police said.
"We have arrested school's Director Jagdish Prasad and teacher Jagat Singh Gujjar for raping the 18-year-old," Kushal Singh, Circle Officer of Neem Ka Thana, told IANS.
Reports said the victim was unconscious and in a critical condition in a Jaipur hospital. Her statement will be recorded after her health improves, police said.
Earlier in the day, 100-150 angry villagers pelted the co-educational school, with around 400 students on its rolls, in a village near Ajitgarh with stones and broke some windowpanes as the news of the crime spread.
The school has since been closed, Assistant Sub-Inspector Moolaram of Ajitgarh police station said.
"There is anger among the villagers. We never expected this kind of thing in our area. We are demanding that the school's registration be cancelled," said a local Ajit Singh on the phone.
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The two arrested men were accused of raping the student for two months on the pretext of taking extra classes. After she became pregnant, she was taken to a hospital in Shahpura, where her abortion was carried out. However, her condition deteriorated after she started to bleed profusely.
She was then taken to a hospital in Ajitgarh, where her family came to know she had undergone an abortion. She was later referred to the Jaipur hospital.
The two accused were charged under Sections 376 (punishment for rape), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy ) of the Indian Penal Code.
--IANS
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