An FIR was lodged after schoolchildren have been discovered at PM Modi’s roadshow in Coimbatore earlier this month
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The headmistress of a center school in Coimbatore has approached the Madras High Court with a plea to quash a criminal case registered against the school management for having reportedly taken 32 college students in uniform to a roadshow carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 18, 2024.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh heard the matter on Thursday, March 28, 2024, and directed Additional Public Prosecutor A. Damodaran to take directions from the Inspector of Sai Baba Colony police station in Coimbatore metropolis by April 3. He additionally suggested the investigating officer to not take any coercive motion until then.
The Coimbatore metropolis police had registered the First Information Report (FIR) for the alleged offence underneath Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 on the idea of a grievance lodged the District Child Protection Officer Pavithra Devi on March 19.
The complainant had claimed to have taken cognisance of the difficulty by information reviews, social media posts and a letter written to her by an Assistant Returning Officer on March 19. She carried out a discipline inspection and learnt from the scholars that they have been certainly taken to the roadshow by their academics.
In her grievance, Ms. Devi stated, the school administration appeared to have referred to as the mother and father over telephone on the morning of March 18 and requested them to take their kids residence by afternoon for the reason that Prime Minister’s roadshow was to happen on the Mettupalayam Road close to the school campus that night.
However, the mother and father of about 32 kids didn’t flip up until four pm and subsequently, the academics had taken them to the roadshow, the complainant stated and sought motion underneath Section 75 of the JJ Act which prescribes punishment for assaulting, abandoning, abusing, exposing or willfully neglecting the youngsters.
On the opposite hand, the headmistress S. Pukal Vadivu (54), in her FIR quash petition, stated, the grievance was completely false and that it had been lodged with a vindictive angle simply to harass the school administration. She stated the school took all essential measures to ship the youngsters safely with their mother and father.
“The allegation as if the school children were taken in uniform to see the honourable Prime Minister is absolutely false and untrue. There was no act on the part of the school at all… It is an absolutely mischievous allegation as though the petitioner had taken the school children for election campaign by forcing them,” her petition learn.
The headmistress additionally contended that the grievance doesn’t in any approach entice Section 75 of the JJ Act and subsequently, the FIR should essentially be quashed.
