The matter came to light only when the victim complained to the principal of the institute on Rajpur Road. The accused has since been arrested and handed over to the police. He has been kept under house arrest at the same institute.
Ashok Kumar, Additional Director General of Police, Uttarakhand, confirmed the incident to and said that the alleged act of sodomy took place on September 2.
When the victim complained to the principal of the institute, internal probe was initiated. The principal Deepika Mathur approached the Rajpur Marg Police Station only on September 6.
Since the incident happened at the premier institute for the visually impaired established by the government of India, we took time to investigate the matter. We asked the authorities at the institute not to let the accused boy go out of the institute, said Kumar.
Superintendent of Police of Dehradun, Shweta Choubey told : "We arrested the accused juvenile only after launching the primary investigation."
Sub inspector Arti Kalura has been given the charge to investigate the matter, said police in-charge of Rajpur Marg Police Station, Ashok Rathore.
Choubey said: "The accused boy is 16-year-old and is a student of Class 11. and has been studying here for the last 10-11 years. The victim is 11-year old. Both are from Uttar Pradesh. The victim is from a very poor background."
The victim is 100 per cent visually impaired while the accused boy has some vision, said Ashok Rathore.
To a query why there was so much delay in arresting the accused, Rathore said, "The matter was suspicious. Both the victim and accused were juvenile. The role of the police in the investigation was limited."
We arrested the accused on September 12 and produced him in a juvenile court. The court ordered him to be kept under house arrest until the investigation was completed, Rathore added.
We are also investigating if any such incidents happened in the past, said Choubey.
The principal of the institute Deepika Mathur told : "The incident took place on September 2. After intial probe, we handed over the matter to the police who registered a case under section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)."
To a question if the incident will dent the image of the institute, Mathur said, "The matter is in juvenile court. The institute has taken the incident very seriously, and has constituted a high-powered committee to look into the matter and find out if any such incident happened in the past."
The National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disablities is a premier Institute in the field of visual disability under the control of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, established in 1990.
(Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan can be contacted at sanjeev.c@.in)
( With inputs from IANS )