The Bengaluru school- Orchid International has filed a police complaint against Vikram Simha, the father of the student who accused her teacher of asking the class to pray to ‘better god’ Allah as a punishment for failing to solve a math problem. In its complaint, the school has accused the class 2 student of defaming the school. The school had got involved in a major controversy after one of its teachers allegedly forced students to say Islamic prayers as punishment.
The school, in its complaint, accused the student of causing irreversible damage to the educational institutions and requested the police to carry out a thorough investigation into the incident.
Orchid International School registers a complaint accusing the student of defaming the school
According to the complaint, “A Class 2nd student and the daughter of Vikram Simha, released a video accusing the Orchid International School of pushing a religious agenda. The aforesaid video was discovered by the complainant on January 4th at 02:20 PM, after which the school officials questioned the student about it. The student has admitted to making the video public. In the light of events, the Orchid International School registers a complaint accusing the student of defaming the school. It has caused irreversible damage to educational institutions. Hence, we request you to carry out an investigation on the incident”, read the complaint filed by Orchid International School, Bengaluru.
It may be noted that after OpIndia reported about the incident on January 6, it received an email from one Shaoli Chakraborty on behalf of Orchid International Schools, in which we were informed about the complaint the school has filed against Vikram Simha, the father of the student who spoke against her teacher in the video.
“The school has investigated this matter thoroughly and found out that the allegations are baseless and completely untrue. Currently, we have started legal proceedings against the parents of the kids and an FIR has been lodged for maligning our reputation with false allegations. The incident is now under investigation by local police,” read the email sent to OpIndia by the representative of Orchid International Schools on January 7.
The school shared with us a copy of the acknowledgement of the complaint received by Mico Layout police station (B.T.M.Layout), Bengaluru.
Bengaluru school student alleges teacher forced class to pray to ‘better god’ Allah as punishment
It may be recalled that Vikram Simha had recorded a video of his daughter who said that she was forced to pray in the name of Allah at Orchid International School, BTM branch, Bengaluru. The girl in the video that went viral on social media, said that her teacher asked the Hindu students to make a bowl shape of their hands and pray.
Orchid International School issues statement calling allegations baseless
After the video of the young girl accusing her math teacher in Orchid International School of forcing students to pray in the name of Allah for failing to solve a problem went viral, the school had issued a statement calling allegations made by the child and the parent, baseless. Blatantly denying the allegations, the school maintained that the child in the video was lying and that the teachers at school don’t promote the practice of religion. It further called the act of making a bowl shape with hands the act of eye palming exercise.
“We have checked the CCTV footage of the class and have also spoken to other children. They all have denied the happening of any such incident”, the statement read.
Vikram Simha reveals how school intimidated his child by not allowing to speak
Following the statement, the father of the little girl had posted another video and detailed how the school tried to intimidate his daughter by refusing to let her speak about the incident that happened in the class. He noted that Mrs Manjula, the Principal of the BTM Branch school at Bengaluru, refused to listen to the child.
The girl in the next video had again fearlessly spoken about her teacher named Sarika Rana teaching the students that ‘Allah is a better God’. Further, refuting to the eye exercise claims made by the school, the student said that she did not get confused over the act of making a bowl shape with hands to be the Two Minutes Eye Exercise.
Several BJP leaders and activists have since then come up in support of the child and demanded strict action against the school and the communal teacher.
The Orchid International School, which is managed by St Theresa Educational Cultural and Social Development Society was earlier in news in October 2014 for sexual assault on a 4-year-old kid. According to the reports, the staff was being questioned in the case of assault on a minor girl in the school campus in the city.
