Karnataka child rights body pulls up Bidar cops for creating 'atmosphere of fear' at school, questioning kids over anti-CAA play sedition case

The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights criticised the Bidar district police for violating rules, including the norms of the Juvenile Justice Act, while questioning students in a sedition case against a school over an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) play.

Asking the Bidar Police officials to stop questioning the schoolchildren, the Karnataka child rights body chairman Dr Antony Sebastian, in a letter to the superintendent of police and the deputy commissioner, stated that an "atmosphere of fear" was created at the Shaheen Urdu Medium Primary School due to the questioning of young students, including a nine-year-old.

The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSPCR) noted that the police authorities had flouted the norms by sending the nine-year-old to be looked after by a neighbour without informing the local child welfare committee following the arrest of the child's single mother along with the school’s headmistress on 30 January.

Both were arrested on grounds that the drama, which was staged by students of Class 4, 5 and 6, on 21 January, was seditious and inflammatory.

A two-member panel of the child rights body had conducted an inquiry into the incident, following which the chairman sent a letter to Bidar officials.

The Indian Express quoted Sebastian, a juvenile justice advocate, as saying: "After interactions with parents, school officials, children and the police, and after studying photographs and CCTV footage, it is clear that the police violated the rights of the children at the school."

After the inquiry, the Commission found during the questioning of students that some policemen present were in their uniforms, thereby, violating the law. Neither their parents or guardians were present during the interrogation.

"The inquiry has also found that a child whose parent was arrested was sent to the home of a neighbour without informing the child welfare committee in violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000," he said.

The child rights commission also said many students have stopped going to school after the police investigation.

While the headmistress, Fareeda Begum and Nazbunnisa, the mother of a nine-year-old girl, have been remanded to judicial custody, school officials have said that the child is traumatised.

"The landlord of the house where Nazbunnisa stayed as a tenant is taking care of the child. She is traumatised," a school official said.

The KSPCR, in its letter, also asked Bidar Police to highlight the condition of the nine-year-old in the court where her mother's bail plea is pending.

The bail applications of the two women arrested in the case will be heard on 11 February, Scroll reported.

Both of them were arrested on the basis of a complaint of a local activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on 26 January against the play.

In his complaint, the activist said that he saw a video of the incident on a local journalist's Facebook page. He said the students were used to promote anti-national sentiments as some of them could be seen in the video slapping pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with slippers to depict opposition to the CAA.

The police came in for criticism from some quarters for questioning the children in uniform on 28 January, two days after they registered a sedition case against the school.

On 4 February, a school official said the police visited the school five times already since a sedition case was registered, according to The Times of India.

Some media reports have also said that the students were subjected to four to five hours of questioning.

"In the morning, three police personnel in plainclothes came with two members of the Karnataka State Child Rights Protection Commission. Later, the deputy superintendent of police H Basaveshwara joined them. This was the fifth time police have come here. As usual, they came and questioned the children and staff," said a source at the Shaheen School.

When contacted, Basaveshwara refused to comment, saying he was still investigating the case.

The police have been reportedly questioning the children and staff about those who wrote the script and assigned to deliver specific dialogues.

Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, Congress MLA and former minister UT Khader slammed the BJP government in the state as well as the Centre for "filing sedition charges against people".

Addressing a press conference, he alleged that the Central and state governments were trying to suppress the voice of people in the country using law enforcement agencies.

Khader claimed that the two women who "depicted the problems they were facing" in the drama were booked under the sedition law. During the investigation, the children were forced to sit at the police station, he alleged.

With inputs from PTI

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