Principal, director of Bangalore school arrested over rape incident

“The school failed to follow police guidelines for preventing sexual assaults on children. We have booked the principal and the director under the provisions of section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code,” the joint commissioner said.

The police had on Saturday morning summoned members of the management team at the school including the vice-president, the secretary, the principal and others. They were questioned by a team of police officers for a few hours before the director and the principal of the school were placed under arrest.

Hundreds of parents and members of the public gathered at the school for the third successive day since the rape incident. The parents have been demanding stringent action against the school management for allowing a Hindi teacher to continue to work in the school despite complaints about his behavior with students.

A Hindi teacher at the school Jaishankar, was arrested by the police on the basis of a complaint filed the mother of a six-year-old child. The mother of the first standard student stated in her complaint that her daughter was sexually assaulted on two occasions by the teacher.

Since the incident – the fourth reported from a Bangalore school in the last two months – the Karnataka home minister and chief minister have warned of serious penal action against schools violating guidelines issued in July this year by the Bangalore police to protect children from sexual attacks in schools.

Following the July incident of sexual assault on a child at school the police had asked schools to deploy various measures like CCTV cameras and larger numbers of female staff members to enable protection of children on school premises.

This is the second case in the last four months where the police have arrested senior management of a school in connection with a rape on school premises. In July the police had arrested Rustum Kherawala the chairman of the Vibgyor School for suppressing information regarding the sexual assault on a five year old child at the school.