Dhar (MP), February 27 A 17-year-old student gave birth to a premature baby boy in a school washroom during a Class 10 board examination in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district, officials said on Friday.
The incident occurred on Tuesday at a private school in Pithampur during a Mathematics paper. This has since led to a police investigation under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to investigate an alleged case of sexual assault.
Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Parul Belapurkar said the teenager complained of severe stomach pain two hours into the examination and requested permission to use the washroom.
When she did not return to the classroom for a long time, the invigilators checked the washroom and, to their dismay, heard the cries of a baby, an official said.
Female staff members of the school rushed to the scene, and the girl and the infant were brought to a government community health centre in an 108 ambulance, according to community health physician Dr. Prashant Kajave.
Both the teenager and the baby were found to be stable, he said.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the girl was 34 weeks (eight months) pregnant, and the baby was premature, he said.
The ASP informed that a case has been registered under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and transferred to the Betma police station.
The teenager, in her statement to the Betma police, alleged that she met a boy while participating in a dance programme, and he sexually assaulted her, which resulted in the pregnancy.
She also alleged that the boy had threatened her into silence, hence she had not informed her parents about the assault, the official said, adding that an investigation is underway.
