Maharashtra police on Tuesday arrested 14 boys from a hostel in Chandrapur district after a Class 12 boy committed suicide by hanging himself on January 18. Police had recovered an 18-page suicide note in which the boy had detailed the sexual assaults perpetrated on him by fellow students and three hostel staff.
"He hanged himself in his Seva Dal hostel room on January 18. The 18-page suicide note was found on Monday. He has given explicit details of the sexual assaults after which we arrested the 14 boys staying in the same hostel as well as its watchman," a police officer told news agency PTI.
They have been charged with abetment to suicide, unnatural sexual offences under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the official said.
Even as there has been outrage over the rising number of rape cases in the country, far less attention is paid when the victims are male.
A 2007 survey by the ministry of women and child development, which sampled 12,447 children in families, schools, at work and living on the street, found that more than half had faced sexual abuse, and 53 percent of victims were boys. The government has not done any similar survey after that.
