The principal of Ganga Jamuna Higher Secondary School in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district and two other school staff have been arrested, days after a series of protests by Hindutva groups, who raised allegations of religious conversion.
Police identified the arrested persons as Afsha Sheikh, the school principal; Anas Atahar, a mathematics teacher; and Rustam Ali, the security guard, according to Indian Express.
They were produced before a local court on Sunday and sent to jail.
The Hindutva groups alleged that a poster celebrating the school’s success in class 10 Board exams was put up outside the premises, featuring non-Muslim students in headscarves. Girl students being forced to wear a headscarf, the right wing groups earlier alleged.
Following the incident, the state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra ordered a probe into the incident on May 31, and on June 2, the education department derecognised the school, citing inadequate infrastructure.
On June 7, police had filed a case against 11 members of the school management committee. They were initially booked under IPC sections 295 (damaging or defiling any object held as sacred by any class of persons) and 506 (criminal intimidation), as well as provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
