Raa Atoll, Maldives —The teacher who has been accused of raping a 14 year old girl on 3 March 2021 in R. Maduvvari in the northern Maldives has been suspended from the school.
The suspended teacher is a secondary teacher from a school in R. Maduvvari, who was also a teacher of the 14-year-old victim. The Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry, Ahmed Ali, informed local media ‘Avas’ that the accused teacher, Mueen Hassan was suspended a few days before the Ramadan month began.
Ahmed informed that the Ministry has received multiple complaints against the teacher Mueen from both the management of the school and from parents as well. However, Ahmed did not detail on the complaints received.
He has been suspended until an issue that the Ministry is investigating is completed.
Ahmed Ali, Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry
While the accused teacher and three masked men; whom the 14 year old girl could not identify had raped her at a guesthouse near the school after being drugged, the residents of R. Maduvveri suspect that a police was also involved in this rape case.
As the residents have accused an officer of being involved a rape case, the matter has also been sent to the National Integrity Commission (NIC) for further investigation. However, the investigation from the commission so far does not indicate that a police officer was involved in the rape case.
The MP of Maduvvari Constituency and Vice President of Opposition PNC, Adam Shareef had called for the arrests of rapists of a 14 year old girl in his constituency, accusing the police of neglecting the investigation and requested the parliament to investigate the case through independent committee.
Police confirmed that on March 11th, the Police received a report that a young girl below the age of 18 years was raped by an individual on March 3rd in a island in the northern Maldives.
The school girl was taken to a guesthouse near the school by her teacher after school extracurricular activities, given a drugged drink and raped by three masked men. While the girl could not identify the masked men, the rapists had threatened to kill the 14 year old. The girl filed a complaint despite the threats.
Police stated that as they currently have no evidence against any specific individual to establish them as suspects for the rape case and have made no arrests.
Due to lack of arrests by the police, protests took place in front of the Maduvvari Police Station, with the police had arresting 10 protestors after pepper spraying the crowd. The local islander took to the street in protest the next day following this, holding signs against rape and asking for justice.
