Bhavan's officials arrested, granted bail

VADODARA: The city police arrested functionaries of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's VM Public School after they turned themselves here on Saturday morning. The officials had been named as accused in an offence registered at Makarpura police station for lax security arrangements that led to some stray dogs mauling Mehnaz Jamaili, second standard girl student, in the school premises on July 17.
Makarpura police officials stated that the school's principal Hemant Kumar, vice-principal Manisha Saathe and director Deepak Dalal turned themselves in at around 9am. All three had been named as accused in the offence registered by the victim girl's father Musaid Jamali on Thursday night.
Makarpura police inspector A J Zala said the accused were presented in the court in the afternoon which granted them bail. They had been booked under sections 268, 337 and 338 of Indian Penal Code. The FIR accused them of not providing proper security in the school, delay in taking Mehnaz for treatment to hospital and not providing facts of the incident.
After making representations to the district collector and district education officer (DEO) initially, the parents had struck compromise with the school earlier this week. District collector Vinod Rao intervened in the matter and ordered an inquiry into the incident after meeting parents.
The DEO, in his report, indicted Bhavan school management for not providing proper facilities to the students and lax security arrangements. The report also mentioned that the female students were at risk inside the school premises due to presence of casual labourers. This was forwarded to the city police for further action and eventually resulted in the registration of the offence.