Why FIR after initial clean chit: Court asks MP govt on school at centre of headscarf row

After lawyers of the accused told the court that an FIR was filed only after politics came into the picture, the judge asked the state prosecutor, “Your Collector has given a clean chit and your Superintendent of Police has filed an FIR, is there a difference of opinion?”

The judge also summoned Damoh Collector Mayank Aggarwal and SP Rakesh Singh on Wednesday, seeking an explanation from the two.

Parents protesting against the closure of the school. (Express photo)

Anunay Shrivastav, the advocate for the accused, began his arguments by telling the court that the school was “conceptualised by the Ganga Jamuna welfare board, which was constituted in 2007”, and its head Mohammad Idris and other members, including Hindus, “envisioned a school which could give English education in a Muslim dominated locality for children from the backward communities”.

“India is a boiling pot of cultures and this is signified by the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, which flow from the Himalayan mountains. That is the motto that the school adopted. From 2010, the school has been subjected to regular checks by the education department, about the state of its infrastructure, teachers, its syllabus. The school’s recognition had been extended on a yearly basis after the inspections,” Shrivastav told the court.

The defence counsel said that “the issue was over some female students shown wearing a scarf, which was part of the school uniform, which was called a Hijab”.

“The Hijab is a word that creates a sensation in this country. This is when the conspiracy began, that this scarf is harmful to the society, harmful to the country, this was said after the flex board came up,” he said.

The judge asked when the scarf was made part of the school uniform. Shrivastav said, “Yes, from 2012 this scarf was made part of the school uniform. The uniform is different for different batch of students… From class V and above the uniform for girls is salwar, chunni and even a scarf.”

On controversy over the school students reciting an Urdu couplet by poet-philosopher Mohammad Iqbal – which has also faced criticism from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan – Shrivastav said, “We teach Madhya Pradesh state board books.The class V book has a couplet of Mohammad Iqbal, Lab pe aati hai dua, some children sing it in their school. If you learn a Hindi subject, you learn Hindi poems. My daughter studies at a Punjabi school, where she is taught Punjabi. She used to do ardas and knows Sikh culture. I am proud to be an Indian, that my daughter knows an extra language.”

Police personnel deployed at Ganga Jamuna school in Damoh. (Express photo)

Shrivastav ended his arguments by stating, “After the poster came up, organisations under the garb of raising awareness created an issue. The authorities, including the district collector, gave us a clean chit. But considering that some sentiments may have been hurt in society, the poster was removed from the area. This is where politics starts”.

It was late last month that a poster celebrating the school’s success in class 10 Board exams was put up outside the premises, allegedly featuring non-Muslim students in headscarves. This set off a series of protests by right-wing groups, who raised allegations of religious conversion.

On May 31, the state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra ordered Superintendent of Police Rakesh Singh to probe the incident.

On June 2, the Chief Minister, at a Ladli-Behna event in Chattarpur, spoke out against the school and alleged that its administration was “teaching poetry of a man who talked about the division of the country”. He also warned that “such acts won’t be allowed in Madhya Pradesh”. The same day, the education department derecognised the school, citing inadequate infrastructure.

On June 7, the police filed a case against 11 members of the school management committee. They were booked under IPC sections 295 (damaging or defiling any object held as sacred by any class of persons), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), as well as provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021.