Sexual abuse of girls: School Principal among 3 suspended; parents stage rail blockade over incident
Thane (PTI): The management of a school at Badlapur in Maharashtra's Thane district has suspended its principal and two staffers in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of two girls, while angry parents of the school children have been staging a blockade since Tuesday morning at the local railway station seeking stringent action against the accused.
Hundreds of irate parents and local citizens came onto the tracks at the Badlapur railway station around 8 am and blocked the path of trains to draw the administration's attention to their demand. The protest has affected the movement of trains on Up and Down routes since around 8 am.
On August 17, the police arrested a school attendant at the school for allegedly abusing two girls studying in the kindergarten, aged three and four years. As per the complaint, he abused the girls in the toilet of the school.
The girls had told their parents that the attendant touched them inappropriately, following which a complaint was filed and a case was registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was later arrested, the police said.
In the wake of the incident, the management of the school said on Monday late evening that it has suspended the principal, a class teacher and a female attendant, holding them responsible for it.
The school management also tendered an apology over the episode.
It said it has blacklisted the firm which has been given the contract for housekeeping.
Vigilance on the school premises will be increased in the wake of the incident, the school authorities said.
The Badlapur police also transferred the police station in-charge for allegedly failing to act when the parents approached the police, an official said.
This morning, a large group of the parents of the children studying in the school gathered outside the institution to demand strict action against those guilty.
After some time, carrying banners and placards, protesters, including a large number of women, came on to the tracks and blocked trains. They shouted slogans to demand action against the guilty.
The police and other authorities are finding it tough to control the situation. Efforts were on to pacify the protesters.
Central Railway chief public relations officer Swapnil Nila said the agitation was going on at the railway station in connection with an incident in a Badlapur school.
A call for Badlapur bandh has been given by several organisations to protest against the incident.
Local MLA Kisan Kathore took up the issue with the authorities, and demanded strong action against the accused and the police personnel who failed to take timely action.
VIDEO | Maharashtra: 'Rail roko' protest held at Badlapur railway station over alleged sexual assault of two nursery kids by a male attendant at a local school.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 20, 2024
(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/dv5TRARJn4) pic.twitter.com/Wrokf0NC02
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
