Hundreds of enraged parents stormed outside a CBSE school in Seawoods on Monday morning, demanding that the principal be named as a co-accused for allegedly attempting to suppress the case of sexual assault involving a four-year-old student and the school bus driver. In a strong show of protest, parents and students raised slogans against the school administration. The parents of the school refrained from sending the children to school on Monday.
The protest was held after a case was registered against the bus driver on the allegation made by a parent that her four-year-old child was abused by bus driver. According to the parents who held the protest, “The distressed parents immediately approached Principal and informed him about the incident. However, instead of taking action, he allegedly tried to suppress the matter. The parents then went directly to the NRI Police Station, where a case was filed,” said one of the parents who was there for protesting. Within two hours, the police arrested the accused school bus driver who was identified as Sujit Das.
Leaders from political parties, including Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction) and others, extended their support to the protest. A heavy police force was deployed at the school gate to prevent any escalation. “The protest was conducted after taking required permissions. We have arrested the driver as per the allegation made. The place of incident and the day is being investigated,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) Pankaj Dahane, said.
“Following the filing of the FIR, the victim was sent for a medical examination. However, the examination was not conducted on the same day and was delayed until the next day at 2 am,” another parent said. Shiv Sena’s Navi Mumbai District Chief Vitthal More has demanded an inquiry into the delay and raised the issue with Police Commissioner Milind Bharambe.
Meanwhile, according to police sources, they have not been able to find any cctv footage wherein the said the incident occurred. The footages of bus were checked that of a week and no footages were found. The ‘protesting parents’ claimed that the incident happened in the school washroom. “The driver has no access to the school premises. And the complainant has not alleged that it has happened in the washroom,” a police official privy to the investigations said.
