Police outside the maulvi’s house in Ghaziabad. Police outside the maulvi’s house in Ghaziabad.

The maulvi of the madrasa where a 10-year-old was allegedly raped was arrested by Delhi Police on Friday. A 17-year-old was earlier apprehended for the alleged rape. Police said they are questioning the cleric to ascertain if he was aware that the girl had been brought to the madrasa by the juvenile, police said.

The cleric was arrested by the STF team of the Crime Branch under Section 21(2) of the POCSO Act. “Section 21(2) is a penal provision and any person being in charge of any institution is liable to be prosecuted criminally for failure to report the commission of offence under sections 19(1) and 20 of the Act,” said a police officer.

Meanwhile, on Friday morning, a group assembled outside the maulvi’s locked house in Ghaziabad, broke the main gate and vandalised the place while shouting communal slogans. The maulvi’s 25-year-old wife had locked the house and moved to her parents’ residence with their two children four days ago.

“It happened around 11 am when I was offering namaz at my mother’s house, not far from mine. My husband is innocent, but some people and media channels are saying he has committed a crime,” she said.

Later in the day, a local councillor and two residents of Muradnagar in Ghaziabad, along with 15-20 unnamed persons, were booked for the incident.

“There were around 100 people, mostly women, who had assembled outside the maulvi’s house. They claimed to be members of a new party called Ajai Shiv Sena. Our force was present at the madrasa, a little more than 500 metres from the house. We are providing security to his family,” said Rakesh Kumar Singh, SHO, Sahibabad police station.

But the cleric’s wife expressed doubts over whether they can continue staying there.

“We built this house five months ago. We have been living in the area for nearly five years and the madrasa was set up by my husband. The day police came to the madrasa and recovered the girl from there, my husband was not in the neighbourhood,” claimed his wife.

Until three days before the alleged rape, the 10-year-old girl’s family used to stay just two houses away from the cleric’s residence. “There was no discrimination until now. Since this incident took place, no Hindu neighbour has said a word to us. People shouting slogans today said that if the maulana comes out, we will not let him live. They said that they will burn him on the street. How can we live here now? We will probably go back to our village in Bihar,” she said.

In a letter to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, BJP MLA from Sahibabad Sunil Kumar Sharma said the madrasa “had become a centre for illegal activities” and ought to be sealed.

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