BAREILLY: Five schoolboys allegedly gang raped a 12-year-old Dalit girlinside the office of a public school principal’s office of in Moradabad after giving her a spiked soft drink, police said on Wednesday. The boys filmed the assault, which took place on May 8, threatened her into silence, and later circulated the video online.All five accused were arrested on Tuesday evening after the survivor’s mother lodged an FIR.The accused, also Dalits and aged between 12 and 15, were the girl’s neighbours and attended the same school under the Civil Line police station limits, officers said. The girl, who is from a different school, did not initially report the assault.The girl’s mother came to know of the incident after a neighbour showed her the video on Monday night. The mother told police that her daughter had appeared depressed for some time.

She had repeatedly asked the child what was wrong, but the girl had remained silent until confronted with the video. The girl then broke down and revealed the sequence of events. She said that around 4pm on May 8, while she was playing outside her home, the five boys had approached her and lured her to a nearby junior high school under the pretence of buying her something. One of the boys had brought the school key from his house, where his father, the school’s watchman, had kept it. Once they were inside the school, the boys locked the main gate and took her to the principal’s office. There, they gave her a soft drink laced with drugs. When she became unconscious, they raped her and recorded the act on a mobile phone. They then threatened to share the video online and to kill her parents if she spoke about the assault. Despite these threats, the video was later circulated on social media platforms. A neighbour, who saw the clip on her phone, informed the girl’s mother. SSP Satpal Antil told TOI, “A case has been registered and all five accused were arrested. All of them underwent medical examination and were found to be minors, aged between 12 and 15 years. They are students from Class 7 to 9 at a city school. They will be presented before the Juvenile Justice Board on Wednesday. The survivor is provided consultation to come out of the trauma of the incident. We will soon file a chargesheet in the case.(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)