Four-year-old Delhi schoolboy 'rapes' classmate: Mother 'aghast' at injuries, experts say wrong to criminalise child.

A four-year-old boy was booked by the Delhi Police on Thursday for "sexually assaulting" his classmate in the washroom and classroom of a well-known private school in the city. The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has issued a summon to the school authorities in the case, CNN-News 18 reported.

The girl, who is of the same age, allegedly came home complaining of pain in her private parts. The child narrated the incident to her mother on Friday. She told her mother that the boy used his finger and a sharpened pencil to assault her sexually. She was taken to a hospital where doctors confirmed sexual assault, police said.

The mother of the girl accused the school of negligence and said the authorities did not take her seriously when she sent the girl's teach a text message on the same night. Instead, she was asked to come to school to register a complaint on Monday. Following this, the girl's parents lodged an FIR against the boy at the local police station.

Police action

The police were somewhat in a fix over how to proceed with the case because of the age of the accused.

"The Indian Penal Code (IPC) provides children below seven years of age certain protections against prosecutions. We are examining those provisions even as we are handling the matter with utmost sensitivity," the police said.