Protesters march on, demand action

• Hundreds of parents stage silent march, demand answers from police commissioner
• ‘Probe is going on, around 8-9 people have been detained, we are questioning them’

Bangalore: Public anger mounted over the alleged rape of a six-year old girl in a public school as hundreds of people staged protests demanding action from police who have detained eight persons for questioning.

Agitated over no arrests being made and venting their anger against the school management, parents joined by others staged a silent march and demanded answers from Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar who addressed them.

"We are hugely pained by the incident...Have trust in the police," Auradkar told unconvinced protesters who gathered in front of jurisdictional HAL Police station after their march from Vibgyor High School, where the rape incident took place on July 2 but came to light on July 15.

The police chief himself had to rush to the venue as protesters, mostly parents of students at the school, demanded his presence after senior police officers failed to calm their anger over alleged "inaction" to punish the school and arrest the guilty. Speaking to reporters, Auradkar said "...There was a delay, lot of delay in actual incident happening and the reporting, 2nd July this happened and 14th July the complaint was brought to the police station."

He said "In spite of that, we are making all the efforts, and I assure all the people that gives us another.... I'm not talking about weeks or months, give us another day or two , because we want to bring the culprit to the book- who is real culprit and who cannot escape the clutches of law."

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Kamal Panth said, "The investigation is going on, around 8-9 people have been detained here, we are questioning them and we have questioned more than 90 people so far.

"Initial inputs given to us are not very specific, so we have to verify all these things. We are going through all the footage and we are examining the teachers, the attendants, all the staff who were present there on that particular day." Panth said. Auradkar said police officials were working round the clock to crack the case but since it involved a minor girl, they had to deal with it "carefully and respond sensitively" keeping the victim in mind.

Panth said the child could not be repeatedly called for probe and ".... We have to cautiously investigate the case." A team of 20 officials was involved in the probe, he said.