The parents of a nursery student who was sexually assaulted in a Thane school have said they got to know about the horrific crime after the parents of another nursery student, who was also sexually assaulted, told them they would file a police case.

The parents then took their child for a medical test, which confirmed sexual assault, they said in the first information report (FIR) filed with the police in Maharashtra’s Thane district’s Badlapur city.

What’s more shocking, the parents said, was the police’s long delay in filing the FIR – while the sexual assault happened on August 13, the police filed the case only on August 16.

The parents were allegedly also made to wait for 11 hours before they were allowed to file the FIR, according to the complaint filed by them.

“Atrocities are committed on a three-and-half years old girl, a four-year-old girl, and at the police station, they (parents) are made to wait for 11 hours when they seek to file a complaint… Is there any sensitivity left? I spoke to the police commissioner and told him that the woman police officer responsible for this delay must be suspended immediately,” Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly Vijay Wadettiwar alleged.

The two four-year-old girls told their parents that a “dada” – referring to an unknown man – in the school sexually assaulted them.

A huge protest broke out in Thane over the sexual assault of the two four-year-old girls. Thousands of protesters had flocked to the local train station in Badlapur in the morning and blocked the movement of trains.

Six hours on, the crowds grew, leading to concerns about train movement and law and order. The government’s efforts to defuse the tension was answered by chants of ‘hang, hang” from the crowd, who demanded death penalty for the 23-year-old school cleaner allegedly involved in the sexual assault on the two nursery students.

Lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, a Padma Shri awardee, who has worked on high-profile murder and terrorism cases including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has been appointed as the special public prosecutor in the case.

He played a key role in major terrorism-related cases in the country. He helped in convicting Ravinder Singh for the Kalyan bomb blast in 1991. He went on to become the public prosecutor for the Mumbai serial blasts case in 1993.
Ujjwal Nikam’s legal career also saw him take up several high-profile assignments such as the murder case of Bollywood producer and T series founder Gulshan Kumar in 1997.
He was also the prosecutor in the murder case of Pramod Mahajan, who was shot dead by his brother Pravin in April 2006 following a dispute.
He was the public prosecutor in the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist caught in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. He successfully argued for Kasab’s death penalty.
He was provided with Z-plus security after 2009 when he took over as prosecutor in the 26/11 case. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016. The BJP had fielded Mr Nikam as its Lok Sabha candidate from the Mumbai North Central constituency. He lost the seat to Congress candidate Gaikwad Varsha Eknath.

As the rescue operation continues off the Italian coast, questions remain as to why the superyacht sank. 

​As the rescue operation continues off the Italian coast, questions remain as to why the superyacht sank.