New Delhi: A school sweeper allegedly assaulted two four-year-olds in the washroom of a well-known school in Badlapur, triggering massive protests across Maharashtra’s Thane district by agitated parents.
The accused, identified as Akshay Shinde, worked as a cleaner contracted through a third-party company and was arrested after the parents insisted on filing a formal complaint despite initial attempts by the police to play down the issue by delaying the filing of the FIR for over 12 hours. The parents, demanding capital punishment for the culprit, called for a shutdown of Badlapur city and halted local trains on Tuesday by protesting on the tracks, disrupting the local railway schedule between Kalyan and Karajat, News 18 reported.
Taking cognisance of the incident, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has decided to send a team to Badlapur for investigation.
Meanwhile, the school issued a public statement expressing regret over the incident, acknowledging the serious lapses in safeguarding students. The administration promised to install additional CCTV cameras throughout the campus and implement stringent safety measures to prevent such incidents in the future. They also assured full cooperation with the authorities, according to the report.
The agitated parents were unsatisfied with the assurances, compelling the management to suspend the principal. The teacher in charge of the class and the two attendants responsible for escorting students to the washroom have also been dismissed. The school’s administration has also terminated its contract with the company that employed the accused and blacklisted the contractor.
Schools in the area remained closed on Tuesday in solidarity with the protesting parents.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde requested protesters to not block tracks. “I have asked police to make this case watertight. We will not spare anyone, be it a police officer or school administration,” he said.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has ordered the Thane Police Commissioner to immediately suspend the senior police inspector, assistant sub-inspector and head constable of Badlapur police station for delaying action in the initial stage of the Badlapur incident. The action came after the parents had alleged that they were forced to wait for over 12 hours to file an FIR.
