Bengaluru: School trust accused of faking fire NOC, misleading high court & CBSE

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru police have booked the chairman and a trustee of BGS Bloomfield School Trust in Thyagarajanagar for allegedly submitting a fake fire safety certificate to the Karnataka High Court and also using the same document to obtain CBSE affiliation.

The Vidhana Soudha police booked Gurappa Naidu, chairman, and Sunitha Naidu, trustee of the school, based on a complaint filed by Sudha Kalwa, 54, a law practitioner.

According to the FIR, despite knowing that it is necessary to obtain a fire safety certificate or No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services (KSFES) for their school, the authorities skipped it. They allegedly created fake certificates and submitted them to the Karnataka High Court on March 11.

Further, the school authorities gave false information to officers of different departments and obtained affiliation from the CBSE Board, according to the FIR. The complainant told the police that the school authorities were cheating students and the public by submitting fake documents and urged them to initiate action against the suspects.

Sudha Kalwa told DH that she had filed a writ petition in the High Court regarding the school being built on a stormwater drain, which the court converted into a PIL, considering the matter to be of public interest.

Following this, the school authorities filed objections in court and submitted documents such as the fire safety NOC and other clearances. “I took the copy of the fire NOC they submitted and sent it to the Fire Department for verification. The department confirmed that no such NOC was issued by them,” Sudha told DH. "On confirming that the NOC was fake, I filed a police complaint,” she added.

The police have filed an FIR under BNS sections dealing with forgery and using forged documents as genuine.

As per the rule...

An NOC is mandatory for high-rise buildings, while low-rise buildings are exempt from mandatorily possessing one. However, irrespective of a building’s height, educational institutions and hospitals are required to obtain an NOC from the Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services (KSFES).