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Nagpur School principal arrested under POCSO Act
Parents continue protest against ‘sexual exploitation of girls’, CM Devendra Fadnavis assures action; the police arrested Principal Jacob Das under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Principal Jacob Das was arrested, even as protests continued against the Yavatmal Public School run by the Darda family in Yavatmal, by the police on Saturday under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
It was the Samadhi of late Jawaharlal Darda on Saturday, when incidents of stone-pelting were reported. Hostile crowds pulled down boards at many places with name of Dardas.
Thousand of protesters marched to the collector's office demanding action against the school, they were alleging that the management had tried to hide the activities of the two teachers. But the two teachers of the school, Yash Borundia and Amol Kshirsagar, were arrested on Thursday after some parents claimed that their daughters were being sexually abused by Yash and Amol; later, 14 more such complaints came up. Subsequently, the police had adduced Section 21 of the POCSO Act, under which the principal was arrested. The protesters also demanded the arrest of Vijay Darda, chairman of the Jawaharlal Darda Education Trust that runs the school, vice-chairman Devendra Darda and secretary Kishore Darda.
Saturday saw continued protests with agitated mobs pulling down boards that displayed works undertaken using funds provided by Vijay Darda (his Rajya Sabha term as Congress MP recently came to an end). Rumours spread like wildfire saying that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had promised support to the Dardas-run school.
However, BJP MLA Madan Yerawar called up the CM who promised the agitated crowd on the speaker phone that he would do everything to help the parents get justice and provide a prominent lawyer who will fight their case in a fast-track court.
Heavy police force has been deployed at many places like airport named after late Jawaharlal Darda and also the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee gate.
However, Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Kumar Singh and Collector Sacchindra Pratap Singh weren't available to comment on the incident.
With the incident making things worse, the school is stuck in controversy since past many years due to allegations of land-grabbing by the late Jawaharlal Darda Education Trust that has been running it and the case is currently in the Supreme Court. Dardas have been fighting a legal battle against an allegation stating that the land allegedly belongs to a housing society.
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