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AURANGABAD: The police here have booked five people, including a woman, for the alleged rape of a sixth standard school girl in a village in Biloli taluka of Nanded district. Two of the suspects are teachers who had allegedly raped the girl in the school, while the other three are the principal, headmaster and woman cook associated with the school’s midday meal scheme.

On Monday, the village observed a bandh to demand the arrest of the five, who are absconding.

“The incident happened around two months back but a police complaint was lodged only on January 18,” deputy superintendent of police (Biloli) Siddheshwar Dhumal, who is investigating the case, told TOI. “We have registered an FIR and have launched a manhunt for the five. They have been booked under various sections of the IPC and Pocso Act. The girl has been admitted to hospital.”

Police sources said that in her complaint, the girl’s mother said her daughter had come home in a battered state after the rape. “The girl told her mother that the two teachers offered to show her a video of a cultural programme and took her to an empty room in the school, where they instead showed her an obscene video clip and raped her,” the sources said.

The complaint further states that the woman, a single mother, had approached the school principal and headmaster, who asked her to give her complaint in writing, the sources said.

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However, instead of initiating any action, the principal told the two teachers that the woman had approached him and said they should pay her to pacify her.

“The teachers met the girl’s mother and threatened her with dire consequences if she spoke about the rape to anyone,” the sources said, quoting the complaint.

Only after the woman’s relatives learned about the incident and encouraged her to approach the police, she mustered courage to step out and file complaint with the police, a member of a students’ organisation, which is based in Nanded told TOI.

He also said that many shopkeepers in the village downed their shutters on Monday to show solidarity with the girl.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

