Principal, trustee held in 6-yr-old's sex abuse case

City school had failed to implement safety guidelines

Two days after a six-year-old girl was sexually assaulted at its premises, the managing trustee and the principal of The Indiranagar Cambridge School were arrested on Saturday by the Jeevan Bima Nagar police.

According to the police, managing trustee Pramod Arya and principal Vyjayanthi were arrested for failing to implement safety guidelines.

A senior police officer said: “The duo have been booked under Sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC. They were questioned for more than two hours along with the vice-principal and other staff.

“They were questioned mainly about the accused Jaishankar’s behaviour in the school. They were also asked about the kind of measures in place for safeguarding the students and why they had not followed the guidelines issued by the police.”

The police said the accused was subjected to medical examination and the victim would be asked to identify him again by showing her the photographs before counsellors.
Another police officer said, “For now, all arrested are being questioned and may be produced before the magistrate after receiving orders from the higher officials.”

A top police source said that during the interrogation of the accused Jaishankar, it was found that he had stored obscene pictures and videos in his mobile phone. The memory card was seized from his residence in Thippasandra.

The police action did not stem protests. Several women’s organisations and parents of students studying at the school continued with their demonstration.

Protesting parents demanded a change in the school uniform from skirts to salwar kameez. Speaking to Deccan Herald, K Ganesh, a parent who participated in the protest, said: “At present, the dress code requires girls to wear skirts. Parents collectively wanted it to be changed to salwar kameez.”

The school is likely to reopen on November 7. A parents’ meet has also been planned for either Monday or Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in response to claims that the ChildLine (1098) was not working when the victim’s mother’s colleague called to report the incident, ChildLine Nodal Bangalore has clarified that the ChildLine was working.

ChildLine volunteer Murugaraj got a call on Child helpline 1098 (at 12:58 pm on 30/10/14) from ChildLine Head Office, Mumbai, and information about the incident was given to him along with the phone number of the complainant, an official statement read. This was based on the phone call the Mumbai office had received from Bangalore.

Murugaraj called the complainant immediately and the person communicated details including the address and school name, the statement read.

“Then Murugaraj referred the case to APSA, collaborative agency of ChildLine as it falls in APSA’s operational jurisdiction,” it added.  A team member of APSA called the complainant to identify the exact location.  The call was attended by a woman who said that as the helpline number was “busy”, she called District Child Protection Officer (DCPO) Divya Narayanappa.