Arunachal: Hostel warden sexually assaults 21 children in Shiyomi district

A hostel warden in the Shiyomi district of Arunachal Pradesh sexually assaulted 21 children aged between 6 to 14 years, said Superintendent of Police (SP), SIT, Rohit Rajbir Singh on July 19.

The SP held a press conference at the Police headquarters in Itanagar over an eight-month-old sexual molestation case that took place in the Shiyomi district of Arunachal at the Government Residential School.

The accused has been identified as 33-year-old Yomken Bagra.

''In November 2022 this case got registered in Monigaon of Shiyomi district regarding child sexual assault. Earlier the complaint was that two twin sisters got sexually assaulted by the hostel warden inside the hostel. Initially, the complaint was reported on 1 November 2022. One case got registered in Tato, the headquarters town of Shiyomi district where the initial investigation took place. Later, the case got transferred to Special Investigation Team (SIT) team headed by Deputy SP Moyir Basar Kamdak,'' the SP said during the press conference. 

Singh also said that the accused was the hostel warden of a school in Monigaon. He was working there from 2014 to 2022 as a warden, there could be more victims of his assault but now after a thorough investigation by two sisters, who lodged complaints, 21 victims came forward aged between 6 to 14 years both male and female. 

''At the time of molestation, the victims were in 1st and 5th standard. However, now they have grown up and settled. We could have filed the chargesheet on a complaint basis based on the statement of sisters and charge the arrested accused but our intention was to give justice to all the victims and even find more victims who are silent and not coming forward,'' Singh said.

The SP also urged the victims to come forward and assure that the police will keep their identity confidential and said, ''We want to give justice to all victims of this serious heinous offence. Out of these 21 victims, six children were victims of aggravated penetrative sexual assault continuously. Other male and female students got sexually assaulted by this accused in different manners''. 

The SP said that the accused also showed them porn clips and the police have recovered pornographic videos from the accused phones. 

''We believe in this long tenure of 8 years this accused had assaulted many more children as we got complaints from 2019 to 2022 batch students only. The accused got arrested after much hide and seek and even one of his companions O Pertin who helped him to hide also got arrested under an act of harbouring a criminal,'' Singh said. 

He further said that the chargesheet has been filed against him in various sections 376 AB, POCSO Act. 

''Presently, the accused is out on bail. We hope that soon trial will be conducted by the court. These crimes were taking place for the last six years, he said.

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