BENGALURU: Nearly a month after a sedition case was registered against her mother and teacher, who were sent to jail for staging a play criticising CAA, the 11-year-old girl has still not returned to school to attend classes. School authorities said she stopped coming after being repeatedly questioned by the police, who visited the school several times. The sixth standard girl is likely to return to class in the next one week and prepare for her final examination in March. Apart from her, five other girls have also stopped going to school after the incident.
Thouseef Madikeri, CEO of the private school where the play was staged, told The New Indian Express, “This play was not performed on the annual day, but within a small hall with barely 70 people. This girl, whose mother was arrested, is not coming to school for the last few days. The incident happened on January 21 and the case filed on January 26. From the next day itself, police started coming to our school and started talking to the sixth standard A section student who enacted the play,’’ he said.
The issue was discussed in the Assembly session, where former minister for women and child welfare and Congress MLC Jayamala Ramachandra said over 52 children were interrogated for 4-5 hours a day for five days, which has created fear among them. Many stopped coming to school. “On the one hand, the government has responsibility to bring dropouts back to school and on the other hand, school-going children are dropping out, which is unfortunate,’’ she said.