A team of District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) probing the alleged humiliation of over 100 girl students by the principal in a Dhanbad school recorded the statements of the girls, parents, teachers, and the principal on Monday.

On January 9, as it was the last day of the students before the board exams, the Class 10 girl students were celebrating “pen day” and wrote good wishes on each other’s shirts. However, this did not go down well with the school principal and she instructed the girls to remove their shirts

No students were allowed to wear the shirt and were forced to return home in their blazers. As per the sources, the students kept crying and pleading to the school administration but they did not pay any attention.

On Sunday, the Jharkhand State Legal Services Authority (JHALSA) had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident. Following this, Principal District and Sessions judge-cum-DLSA Chairman Virendra Kumar Tiwari formed a nine-member committee under the chairmanship of Legal and Defence Council System (LDCS) Chief Kumar Vimlendu to probe the incident

The other committee members are LDCS Deputy Chief Ajay Kumar Bhatt, Muskan Chopra, Arun Kumar, Rajesh Singh, Hemraj Chouhan, Anamika Singh, Ravinder Sharma, and officer in-charge of the Jorapokhar police station Koleshwar Ram.

Deputy Commissioner, Dhanbad, Madhvi Mishra had already set up a five-member committee to investigate the matter. Apart from this, the Jharkhand Abhivawak Mahasangh has written a letter to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in New Delhi, demanding action under the POCSO Act against the school principal.

On Monday, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Rajesh Kumar and District Education Officer (DEO) Nishu Kumari visited the school for the investigation. Along with this, the DLSA Secretary-cum-sub-judge Rakesh Roshan also reached the school to probe the matter. The Child Welfare Committee (CWC) team has also reached the school. They recorded the statements of the students, guardians, and principal.

Complain to Deputy Commissoner

After reaching home, the students had narrated the ordeal to their parents accusing the school principal of mental harassment. Later, the parents visited the office of Ms. Mishra, demanding strict action against the school principal.

“Investigation is still going on and we are not in position to share any details. We will go through the CCTV footage of the school. We are also recording the statement of the parents, students, teachers and principal. It will take at least one to two days to get the final report,” Mr. Roshan said.

The room of the principal has been sealed by the police so that nobody can temper the CCTV footage.

Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), while sitting on dharna outside the gate of the school, demanded to cancel the school’s registration.