Mariyam Usmani, TwoCircles.net
Two minor Muslim girls, Zainab*(8) and Safeena*(10), who joined the Bharat Nagar primary school with a bundle of beautiful hopes, never thought that a teacher could sexually abuse them for straight eight days. The injured Zainab was one day found by the family members sobbing in a corner. Following inquiry, they came to know about the alleged criminal act. The incident took place just before Women’s Day on March 8 — the week when the polity of the country was making tall claims about women empowerment.
Zainab’s elder brother said, “What the teacher, Mahendra Patel, did with my sister is terrible. My sister is only eight years old and a student in standard three. We are still in shock, but we have decided to raise our voices.”
The families of the survivors alleged that Mahendra was previously found guilty in several cases of physical assault, but he managed to escape due to his “RSS links” and “Hindu identity”. They said that the alleged culprit used to force students to drink alcohol. Sometimes, he poured liquor in their water bottles to numb their senses, and sometimes he told children that “liquor would be a panacea for them”.
Shedding light on the incident, Zainab’s uncle said, “Such cases of physical abuse are beyond disgust. But the way to reach justice is truly difficult — particularly when the culprit is associated with Hindutva outfits. He also threatened our daughter to silence her.”
On the other hand, Safeena’s father was too traumatised and refused to share his concerns. Speaking on his behalf, her uncle said that all the students at the municipality school were Muslims, and the incident was a repercussion of rapidly growing hate against the Muslim community. He said their family is not “politically backed” like that of the accused — still, they have self-esteem, and they can sense the injustice.
“We seriously don’t know how long this teacher had been indulging in abusing our children. We don’t know how to trust the management again.”
Bharat Nagar municipality school in Amreli is one of those schools that scratches the ground reality of the alleged “Gujarat model” with only two teachers.
Local Muslims also spotted a “lack of responsibility”, “sensitivity” and “management” because they believe that the municipality is not interested in focusing on Muslim localities. The school is situated behind a mosque; thus, it becomes hard to trace the hemmed-in activity due to the wall barriers, allowing felonious teachers like Mahendra to show their hate-draped sexism towards children.
The Hindutva defence of the ‘culprit’
After sniffing the foul smell of liquor around their children, the parents first sensed that something erroneous was happening at the school. They collected a few people and made a plan to catch the teacher in the act. The next day, the alleged criminal activity was traced on the spot around the lunch hours in the school premises.
Rafique, a Gujrat-based reporter and social worker, said, “Mahendra was harassing the kids for many days. A lot of people have witnessed the incident. When locals, including Zainab’s parents, suddenly opened the doors, they found the teacher involved in the obscene act.”
The survivors’ families reached out to the police, who allegedly took more than the usual hours to file an FIR “because the criminal was a Hindu by faith”.
Zainab’s family was allegedly instructed to “take money and settle the issue”, but they bravely refused to accept the alleged proposal. With the support of the community, the minor girls themselves came forward and expressed their resilience to fight against the alleged harassment.
“We were asked to take Rs 50 lakhs and not to pursue the case because the perpetrator is closely associated with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor, the RSS. Parshottam Khodabhai Rupala, the MP from Rajkot, happens to be the uncle of Mahendra Patel,” alleged Zainab’s uncle.
In between the chain of shocking socio-political responses, the Patel community came to support the accused, and the Hindutva organisations allegedly reached the police station to defend him. Local Muslims, on the other hand, held a demonstration in solidarity with the survivors. Influential Muslims of Amreli wrote a letter under the banner of Darul Uloom Mehbubiyah to demand justice and strict punishment for the culprit. The second teacher of the municipal school also joined the protestors. People drew attention to the fact that the alleged incident was probably the second such case in his “criminal records”.
‘A case of communal hatred’
However, a case was filed under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act, and the accused was arrested, but there might be numerous linked offenses that seek a “separate and serious investigation”.
Revealing the horrors of the case, Mujahid Nafees, a Gujrat-based activist from the Minority Coordination Committee, said, “We have met the families and held a protest. We have also written a letter to the DGP, urging him for a compensation. The communal angel is quite clear in the case. The police took around seven-eight hours to register an FIR.”
The survivors’ families have demanded that a speedy trial be conducted in a fast track special court and an investigation panel be constituted to examine the case.
Mujahid said that “involvement of the right wing” points toward a few extra questions about the role of political forces behind the case.
“On a social dais, this case exposes an awful blend of communalism, sexism and politics-backed terror against Muslims and girls. Other families who came across the incident through the news now fear for the security of their daughters. Seeing a heinous criminal being cheered up by the hateful throngs not only breaks the myth of alleged development in Gujrat but also annihilates the trust of the Muslim community,” he concluded.