Rapist school cab driver attacked by angry kin

NEW DELHI - A school cab driver accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl and her two brothers for over a year and a half was assaulted by angry family members and neighbours of the children while being taken to the court Saturday.

The accused driver, Lalit Ratawal, 32, was being taken to the court by police officials when members of the victims’ family slapped and beat him.

“My childrens’ future is ruined. The police are not at all sympathetic and not taking any strict action against the culprits,” the mother of the children told reporters.

The accused, a resident of Bapa Nagar in Karol Bagh, would take the siblings to unknown destinations where he along with his four associates, aged below 18, would rape the girl and sodomise her two brothers, aged seven and 13, police said.

Ratawal had threatened to kill the children’s mother if they spoke of the ordeal to anyone. Hence, the heinous activities continued for more than a year, said a police official.

The girl told her mother a few weeks back, but the mother was scared and did not report to the police. It was only after a neighbour intervened that the police were informed.

A medical examination on the girl confirmed sexual assault, police said. Ratawal was arrested Friday, but his associates are absconding.

Agitated family members gathered at the Prasad Nagar police station near Karol Bagh in central Delhi since early morning and also pelted stones at the school van owned by Ratawal.

The accused’s mother has denied the allegations against her son, saying: “No one ever complained about my son. He has not done anything wrong and is innocent. He is being framed.”

The children’s father had died two years ago and the family’s source of income was the rent it got by letting out six rooms of the house.

A hunt has been launched to nab the four minor associates of Ratawal.