Badlapur sexual abuse: HC seeks Maharashtra govt's response to suspended education officer's plea
Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to respond to a plea filed by an education officer from Thane district seeking a stay on his suspension following the alleged sexual abuse of two girls at a school in Badlapur.
The officer, Balasaheb Rakshe, urged the high court to stay the suspension order pending a final hearing of his petition before the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT), which refused him interim relief on August 26.
He requested the high court to restrain the state government from appointing any other officer in the post.
Rakshe moved the Bombay High Court seeking a stay on his suspension order, claiming the government order was "politically motivated" and he had been made a "scapegoat".
A division bench of Justices A S Chandurkar and Rajesh Patil directed the government to file an affidavit by September 6 when it would hear the plea.
Rakshe's advocate, S B Talekar, sought the court to order a status quo until then, but the court said it would consider the same in the next hearing.
Talekar argued that there was no misconduct on Rakshe's part and that the government merely wanted to save its face after the Badlapur incident.
Two kindergarteners were sexually abused by a male attendant inside a school in Badlapur.
"The petitioner (Rakshe) has been made a scapegoat. The government made a statement first before the media that two education officers have been suspended and then issued the suspension order," the lawyer said.
Rakshe had first approached MAT for interim relief for a stay on the suspension order, which he claimed was arbitrary, discriminatory and malafide.
However, when the tribunal refused to pass any order granting him interim relief, Rakshe approached the high court earlier this week.
The suspension order was "politically motivated", and he was being made a "scapegoat" in the entire episode, his plea stated.
Rakshe claimed he found out about the sexual abuse on August 18, and promptly contacted the Ambernath block education officer, asking him to visit the school in Badlapur, conduct an enquiry, and submit a report.
The block education officer submitted a report on August 20, and Rakshe issued a show cause notice to the school president, secretary and headmaster.
The notice sought the school's explanation about defunct CCTV cameras on its premises, the plea stated.
Rakshe said he had forwarded the enquiry report to the director of education (primary) in Pune and the deputy director of education (primary) in Mumbai.
"On August 21, a committee of administrators was set up to manage the school in Badlapur. The petitioner also directed the headmasters of all primary, secondary and higher secondary schools to install CCTVs, complaint boxes, and a students' safety committee," the plea said.
Despite taking these measures, the Minister for School Education announced in the media that the education officer of Thane (Rakshe) has been placed under suspension, he stated.
"The petitioner is placed under suspension despite the fact that he is in no way concerned with the regulation and supervision of pre-primary centres," the plea said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
