NEW DELHI — The head of a school in southern India where a 6-year-old girl was raped earlier this month was arrested on Wednesday and charged with hindering the investigation and negligence, police said. M.N. Reddi, the top police official in Bangalore city, told reporters that Rustom Kerawalla, the chairman of VIBGYOR High school, was charged with negligence for failing to ensure the student's safety. Reddi gave no details on how Kerawalla hindered the investigation into the July 2 assault that happened when the girl left her classroom to go to the restroom. Kerawalla made no statement to media as he was being led away by police. Earlier this week police arrested the school's skating instructor and charged him with attacking the child. The instructor had been teaching at the school since 2011, and Reddi said the school performed no background check while hiring him. News reports have said that the instructor had been fired from a previous job for “inappropriate” behavior with female students. Police said that the girl was recovering from the attack. Over the weekend, parents and relatives of children who attend the school in Bangalore, India's technology hub, shouted slogans against the school's administration and demanded that police act swiftly against those involved in the assault, which was reported only last week. India's rampant misogyny and sexual violence against women have often been ignored, but public anger boiled over after the 2012 fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving bus in the heart of the Indian capital. The nationwide outcry led the federal government to rush legislation doubling prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalizing voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. The law also makes it a crime for officers to refuse to open cases when complaints are made. — AP
