A 17-year-old class nine student of a government residential school in Karnataka’s Shahapur taluk in the Yadgir district delivered a baby boy inside the school washroom on August 27. Both the girl and the newborn were shifted to the Shahapur Government Hospital and are reported to be stable. The police arrested Paramanna Wari (28) for raping the girl, leading to the pregnancy.
According to the police, Paramanna is married and has a child. He lured the girl, raped her, and threatened her not to disclose the incident. He was arrested on August 29, two days after the teenager gave birth.
According to the FIR, based on a complaint by the District Child Protection Officer (DCPO), the girl had been raped about nine to ten months ago. The childbirth occurred at around 2 pm, when the girl, who was at the full-term of her pregnancy, went into labour inside the restroom. Her classmates witnessed the delivery and alerted the school administration.
Initially under “immense stress,” she refused to reveal the details of the rape or identify the perpetrator, telling authorities that she only experienced stomach pain before giving birth in the washroom.
The matter was not reported immediately by the school. The girl’s brother, who was informed soon after the birth, also failed to alert officials. Along with Paramanna, the FIR also charges the school principal, Basamma, hostel warden Geetha, staff nurse, and the girl’s brother for failing to inform authorities despite knowing of the matter.
The Karnataka Residential Educational Institutions Society (KREIS) suspended four staff members, principal Basamma, hostel warden Geetha, science teacher Narasimhamurthy, and physical education teacher Shridhar, for dereliction of duty and negligence in monitoring the student’s health. A departmental inquiry has been ordered.
The suspension order noted that the girl attended classes for only about ten days a month since the start of the academic year, but staff failed to notice changes in her condition. The staff nurse made a bizarre claim that she had shown no visible symptoms of pregnancy.
Shashidhar Kosmbe, member of the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR), said that the staff had “kept the shocking incident a secret” and failed to perform their duties. He pointed out that rules required a staff nurse to conduct monthly health and menstrual checks for girl students, but no such efforts were made in this case. “We are really wondering why school staff members didn’t bother about the girl’s condition until she gave birth in the restroom,” he told TOI.
The Commission has filed a suo motu case against the school authorities and directed the DCPO to prepare a detailed report. Kosmbe also said the Commission learned about the delivery from outside sources rather than from the school itself.
Police said the girl will be counselled once doctors declare her fit, to gather more details and whether others were aware of it.
The accused has been booked under Section 64 (punishment for rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Sections 4, 6 and 19 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and Sections 33 and 34 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2025.