Mangaluru, May 29: The management of Mangalore One School on Friday May 29th organized a press meet to clarify on the incident of sexual abuse on a LKG student of the same school by the van driver of the school which had taken place about two and a half months ago.
An LKG student of the school had been sexually assaulted allegedly by Madhukar, the driver of her school van on March 13th, 2015. Since then, there have been demands by a few, specially the United Muslim Organization, DK unit to close down the school.
Chairman of Mangalore One School Sharat Saxena speaking at the press meet, said, wrong information’s are being spread regarding the issue. Why should I protect the accused – and how can I protect? I am as normal as anyone, and I can assure that there has been no cover-up. The police had arrested the driver within half an hour, so the question of a cover-up does not arise at all.
Police verification was done by us before employing the driver. He had no previous criminal record and there were no complaints against him in the past. We also installed CCTV cameras in the school premises even before the guidelines were issued by the government. On the very next day after the incident, we met the mother and the child the very next day and assured to do whatever we could to help them. We even offered free education to the child in our school, he said.
When queried why the school management took such a long time to approach the media, he replied, I should have held a press conference earlier, but I thought police was conducting inquiry on the issue and did not expect things to blow out of proportion. I am also media shy.
About security measures taken post the incident, he said, we have doubled the number of CCTV cameras and appointed lady attendants for each of our school vehicle.
We have not done anything wrong, so how can we be held responsible? We have done everything expected of us. We could have been held responsible if there had been negligence from our part, but that is not the case, he said.
The issue was communalized and politicized. For us all religions are equal. Here a girl child has been affected and we are sensitive to her needs, Saxena added.
In a press note, the school further stated, all allegations (against the school) are totally baseless and false, and these have arisen due to two reasons:
- Pure ignorance of people regarding the incident; and
- Deliberate attempt to cause damage to the school mainly by our competitors.
To put the record straight, we present the following 100% true facts:
– Management is interfering in investigation to protect accused driver (allegation) – Totally false.
The Management never wanted to protect the accused. Also, the management cannot protect the accused and what they say has no value anyway. The police at the highest level (viz CID) is conducting the investigation. The CID will definitely do justice. The accused has been in jail for over 75 days, and he will be charge sheeted if found guilty on evidence.
– Management is negligent in the commission of offence (allegation) – This is totally untrue.
All government departments (including police, DC, education and women child department) have conducted enquiries against the school, and nobody found any negligence on the part of the school.
In the press meet, Principal Navya, Headmistress Nayan, and educationist J M Shahid were present.
