CAA play in school: 'The students got so scared, they started crying'

It has been over a fortnight since life turned on its head for seven school students of Shaheen School in Bidar Karnataka after their social awareness play landed them in the trouble with the law The sleepy town just across the border from Shiv Senaruled Maharashtra has become the centre of controversy after the police arrested the headmistress Fareeda Begum and a parent slapping a case of sedition against themWhat was supposed to be a harmless classroom exercise has now snowballed into a terrifying experience for the schoolThe four boys were among the seven kids from Shaheen School in Bidar who were interrogated by the policeOn January 21 seven studentsmdashfour boys and three girlsmdashfrom Classes VI and VII had staged a play on the Citizenship Amendment Act CAA and the growing panic over documents A video of the play was later shared on Facebook by one of the parents A social worker Neelesh Rakshyala found the video offensivemdashparticularly the part where an 11year old girl voiced her objection about CAANRC and said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be hit with a slippermdashand filed a complained with the New Town Police on January 26 The very next day police officials descended on the school and questioned the students as well as 15 teachersAccording to school authorities a male police officer in civil clothes accompanied by two male officials and a female cop in uniform had first questioned the children on January 28 The team later returned with Child Welfare Committee officials and questioned the students until February 4 The continuous questioning and arrests have attracted a lot of criticism on social media and from the Child Rights Commission in KarnatakaThe room where the kids and staff were questioned between January 28 and February 4 PicsBalaji PichareCops are overreactingThe events of the last few weeks have cast a pall of gloom over the school While classes continue normally both students and teachers are growing anxious by the dayFortunately the school administration has stood by them and defended their right to express themselvesShaheen School in Bidar Karnataka was established 31 years ago The educational institute currently has 9000 studentsThouseef Madikeri CEO of Shaheen Group of Institutions said the police had even asked the school to send the students to the police station for questioning We had an argument after we refused The police have a right to do their job and we have always cooperated with them but we cant allow them to violate the rights of children he saidMadikeri also feels that the police overreacted The idea behind asking students to stage a play was to spread awareness about a social cause The students came up with their own interpretation of the topic They may have used words that were improper but this is not the way to handle the issue he saidAccording to the police Nazbunnisa Parvin a parent who has been arrested in the case had taught her daughter Aria name changed to use offensive words against the PM However Mohammed Barkat Ali the father of another student said the children had simply copied the lines from a video shared by a TikTok starDespite all that has happened Ali is proud of his daughter Firdouz I didnt know anything about the play until the police came to question my daughter about it I told my daughter that she had done the right thing and she doesnt need to be scared of anyone he saidMohammed Barkat AliHe added that the entire ordeal has deeply affected his daughter who is reluctant to go back to school He managed to convince Firdous to attend classes for the first time on Friday as it was a half day But she started feeling unwell and returned homeTeachers said that Aria too has been depressed ever since her mums arrest Parvin is a widow and works as a domestic help Aria has been a student of Shaheen School since kindergarten She is a sincere student and has always been involved in classroom activities In a play last year she spoke against dowry said a member of the school managementThouseef MadikeriA school staffer said that apart from the students 12 to 15 teachers were also interrogated by the police They were so shaken up by that experience that most of them didnt show up to work for two to three days said the stafferA 24yearold teacher Huma name changed said that the police kept asking if they had written the line The police are questioning us on the basis of one line They even asked us if we would have said such a thing if we had a Muslim leader she saidA 10yearold male student who was part of the performance defended it saying We have been reading about the protests against CAA and NRC and we wanted to spread awareness about it A play is just a creative way of expressing our beliefs and we were only trying to be funny The police made a big deal out of itChild laws were violatedThe headmistress Begum and Parvin have been charged under Sections 124 A 153 A 504 5052 of the Indian Penal Code Both the arrested women will be produced at the Bidar District court on February 11The school has also slapped charges against Shaheen Institute Alimuddin TA the president of the primary school and Yusuf Rahim who uploaded the video on Facebook Both Rahim and Alimuddin are yet to be arrestedThe teachers said that the polices behaviour inside the campus has terrified all the students of the school especially when on January 30 they arrested Begum and Parvin The students got so scared that they started crying said HumaKeshavarao Srimale the advocate representing the school pointed out that the police have no valid reason for the arrest With reference to an old judgement from 1962 if someone had to be charged with sedition prior permission has to be taken from a senior rank officer like a DGP or SP In this case no such permission was taken The mother has no involvement in the case and the police has arrested her for no fault of hers he saidAfter the word on the incident spread on social media members of the Child Rights Commission in Karnataka gave verbal directions to the Superintendent of Police in Bidar to stop interrogating the childrenAntony Sebastion chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights KSCPCR said that one of the commission members visited the campus and submitted a report on the incident Based on the report some cops interrogated the children in uniform Wearing uniform during interrogation is prohibited under the Juvenile Justice Act We have asked for an explanation from the police he saidOn Thursday the KSCPCR sent a letter to the current superintendent of police DL Nagesh asking him to submit a report on the entire incident Sebastion said that the polices report is expected next week and after its submission the CRC will give its recommendations to the policeThe police however argue that they have acted as per procedure and no laws were broken Nagesh took charge a few days ago after he replaced T Sridhar who was transferred on January 31 He said that the police had only acted on the complaint The complaint was that the children staged a play which was offensive The children and teachers are main witnesses So the investigating officer spoke to them as per protocol while the district child protection officer and teachers were present he saidNagesh denied that the police had questioned a child repeatedly and said that the police had spoken to different students and teachers over a period of five to six days He further said that the CCTV footage of the auditorium was deleted when the investigating officer went to the school There is no other way to find out what happened but to speak to the children and teachers We have followed due procedure However if police action is said to be objectionable we are ready to conduct an inquiry he said Madikeri however said that cops had seized hard disks which had all CCTV recordingsDespite the ordeal the teachers said they will continue to encourage the students to stage plays next year The students are bold and confident and they will get over the incident soon said a teacher on condition of anonymity21 JanDay students of the school staged the playCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates