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Updated: Feb 21, 2019 10:30 IST

Police in West Bengal’s Durgapur have arrested a 16-year-old boy, who is writing his Class 10 board examination, on charges of raping a Class 1 student, officials have said.

The boy allegedly committed the crime on Sunday, a day after he wrote his geography exam and a day before he appeared for the mathematics test.

“We nabbed the boy after a complaint was lodged on Monday. The crime was committed on Sunday. We took the boy to the exam centre according to the court order. The minor victim is undergoing treatment,” Avishek Modi, deputy commissioner of Asansol Durgapur Police, said.

According to police, the victim a medical test confirmed she was raped.

“We have heard about even 15-year-old boys being accused of rape, but never heard of anyone committing such crime in the midst of board exams which is an occasion causing tension among students,” said a senior district police officer.

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The boy took the six-year-old, who lives close to his home in Durgapur, to an abandoned house in the area on Sunday and forced himself on her. The resident of Durgapur Municipality was arrested on Monday and produced in a court the next day.

He wrote the tests at his designated exam centre as a policeman kept a watch on him.

The exams ended on Wednesday and he was taken to a shelter home in Burdwan.

Also read| 4-day probe, 5-day trial lands man in jail for life for raping 4-year-old in Rajasthan

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, West Bengal accounted for 11.31%, 10.11% and 9.6% of all the crimes against women in the country in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.

In 2012, West Bengal accounted for 12.67% of the total cases, making the state the worst offender in the country on this count.