Ronita Torcato
The Maharashtra government has suspended the Adarsh Vidya Prasarak Sanstha’s board of trustees and appointed an administrator to temporarily manage affairs of the Badlapur school where two minors, aged four, were sexually assaulted by the school janitor on August 11-12, 2024.
The school authorities had earlier said the nursery section’s CCTV cameras went defunct 15 days prior to the sex abuse, but a government appointed Special Investigation Team ( SIT ) found cameras in the rest of the school were functional.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut addressing the media asked, “Who made the CCTV footage disappear from the school? The head of the institution must have done this. Why did he do it? Just to save a constable or is there some other mystery behind it?”
Sachin Padwal, former corporator and ex-member of the Civic Education Committee, said ,“We have been demanding CCTV cameras in schools since 2017. The proposal has been delayed due to a lack of funds, which is disgraceful. The Municipal Corporation spent Rs 2,000 crores on the Mumbai Beautification Project, yet claims it lacks funds for this project. “
Padwal is spot on. The.Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM ) is India’s richest municipal corporation boasting an annual budget exceeding that of some of India’s smaller states.
Maharashtra Congress General Secretary, Sachin Sawant has demanded a security audit of all schools in the state to determine if requisite infrastructure and safety measures are in place.
The Maharashtra government had formed the SIT following public outrage and massive protests in Badlapur on August 19. On August 20, members of the public vandalised the school and disrupted local train services at Badlapur railway station for around 10 hours, affecting the movement of trains.
An FIR has been registered against school officials for failing to comply with Section 19 of the Pocso Act, which mandates reporting of such incidents. A second FIR has been registered against the accused rapist in the same case.
The government also mooted a series of measures like compulsory installation of CCTVs, female support staff for toilets and changing rooms, background check of all staffers appointed to various posts and complaint boxes and internal grievance committees.
The state government ‘s new Government Resolution (GR) mandates that all private schools, in addition to government and civic schools, shall install the CCTV cameras by next month.
A tall order considering that a similar decision taken five years ago, by the MCGM, the governing civic body earlier known as the Bombay Municipal Corporation, has yet to be implemented.
Guardian Minister Mumbai city, Deepak Kesarkar suggested installing panic buttons in all schools and hostels along with the CCTVs for women’s safety. On August 23, Kesarkar announced the suspension of Thane District Education Officer (DEO) Balasaheb Rakshe and BMC’s education officer Rajesh Kankal.
Rakshe has been suspended for not reporting the Badlapur sexual assault case in time; Kankal has been suspended for non-installation of CCTV cameras in MCGM schools. It may be noted that while Rakshe’s suspension was officially enacted, no formal order has been issued regarding Kankal who has challenged the suspension orders in court.
The Municipal Corporation’s 2019 decision to install the cameras was sparked by a murder in a Delhi school back in 2017. The civic body planned to install around 6,000 CCTV cameras in nearly 1,000 buildings and made a provision of Rs 24.30 crore for the same. However the project faced delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, high camera costs, and funding issues.
Currently, more than 3.55 lakh students are enrolled in 1,147 MCGM schools which provide education in Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English.
Last year, the civic authorities made a case for cheaper cameras in schools. The tender process for the revised plan was initiated in February. But the installation has yet to commence.
The judiciary on its part castigated the tardiness of officials investigating the sexual assault of the two minors who identified the accused Akshay Shinde ( 23) at the SIT identification parade, despite standing instructions from the apex court that rape victims are not to be subjected to the ordeal.
SIT said the identification parade was held “to help” the minor victims identify the accused who is currently in judicial custody following a directive from the special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court.
Police investigators took cognizance of the fact that the CCTV outside the school showed the accused, entering and leaving the institution through the main gate on those days. Clearly, the school authorities had neglected to repair the non functional equipment in the vicinity of the nursery.
K.P. Naik, president of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Shikshan Sena, points out that civic guidelines mandate one inspector for every 250 schools, which include civic-run, aided, and private institutions.
As it happens, the Corporation currently faces a shortage of education inspectors, with approximately 100 of the 132 positions vacant. These inspectors are responsible for auditing safety, educational quality, and other factors of school operations. Naik has requested Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr. Amit Saini to expedite the process of filling these posts.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan took suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the incident and observed that boys should also be sensitised. “Education of boys is important. `Bete ko padhao beti ko bachao,’ (educate the boy and save the girl),” judge Dere had said, tweaking the government slogan.
Public outcry in the case has impacted the registration of child sex abuse cases in Mumbai. From registering approximately 100 POCSO cases in a month, police registered 121 in a fortnight.
Interestingly, the accused confessed to the crime during medical examination in a hospital.( statements to police by accused are not admissible in court.)
The SIT has done character profiling of the accused and recorded the statement of his heavily pregnant third wife. With the help of this character profile, SIT is building a case against the accused to negate the claim of his family that he is mentally ill.
The accused was employed with a residential society prior to joining the school.Police have made enquiries with members of the society and checked his internet history for child pornography.
Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), parents have a right to access to their children’s educational records.( The videotape is an educational record under FERPA.) However, the victims ‘ parents were made to wait 11 hours to lodge their complaints.