A six-year-old girl was raped in the washroom of a private school in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar allegedly by the sweeper, who was hired a fortnight ago after police verification. The 22-year-old has been arrested.

Hindustan Times reported the crime on Thursday. Going by the complaint filed by the girl’s parents, the child got home from school at 2.30 pm and narrated her ordeal to her mother. The parents rushed to the school and informed the principal and the police were called. Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia has ordered a magisterial probe into the case.

The girl was taken to AIIMS where the doctors confirmed the rape and told her parents that she will need surgery.

The sweeper, resident of Dakshinpuri, has denied the charges, saying he was only helping the girl as the woman attendant stationed at the toilet wasn’t present.

The police said the girl had gone to the washroom and sought help, but instead of the woman staffer, the sweeper went and allegedly assaulted her.

“We are in shock and have nothing to say. We send our kids for education, not to become victims of perverts loitering in schools,” the HT report said, quoting the father, who also said his child too traumatised to go to school.

The incident comes in the wake of a child’s gruesome murder at Gurugram’s Ryan International School, which had caused much outrage. He had allegedly been killed by the bus conductor.

On Thursday, the sub-divisional magistrate visited the school and issued a notice to the school management while a team from the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights will visit the institute on Friday.