School principal kills girl for resisting rape and dumps body on school premises in Gujarat; arrest

The principal of a government primary school in Gujarat's Dahod district has been arrested on suspicion of killing a six-year-old student after she resisted his attempt to sexually assault her, police said on Sunday.

Police have launched an investigation after the child's body was found on school premises in a village in the state's Singvad Taluka on Thursday, an official said.

School principal Govind Nat suffocated the girl after she resisted his attempt to sexually assault her, police commissioner Rajdeepsinh Zala said.

“On Thursday at around 10:20 a.m., the school principal came by in his car and agreed to take the girl to school by car at the request of the mother. Students and teachers told the police that the girl did not come to school that day,” Zala told media representatives.

When questioned, the school principal initially insisted that he had picked her up in his car and then taken her to school, the police officer said. He later confessed to police that he had killed the girl, he said.

On the way to school, the principal tried to sexually assault the girl. When she resisted, he covered her mouth and nose to prevent her from screaming, causing her to lose consciousness, Zala said.

“The headmaster came to the school and parked his car with the girl's body inside. At 5 p.m., he took out the body and threw it behind the school building. Then he put her school bag and slippers in her classroom,” Zala said.

Based on technical analyses and the time he left school in the evening, he became the main suspect and confessed to the crime after interrogation, he said.

A day after the girl's body was found, the autopsy report showed that she died of suffocation, Zala said.

When the child did not return home after school, his parents and relatives began searching and found him lying unconscious on the grounds behind the school building.

The child was taken to Limkheda Civil Hospital where doctors declared her dead, he added.

(This article has not been edited by News18 staff and is taken from the feed of a syndicated news agency – PTI)