Convent school in South Delhi vandalised by masked men; Kejriwal condemns, Irani to visit

Just a week after Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured the Christian community that recent attacks on Delhi churches would be investigated as a hate crime, a Christian school in Vasant Vihar was on Thursday night vandalised by masked men. Prima facie no valuables have been stolen or robbed but the principal’s office has been vandalized and glass panes shattered. According to a report on Headlines Today, masked men entered the Holy Child Auxilium school late at night and vandalised the Principal’s room. However, there is no information yet on whether the CCTV’s in the school were broken or not. The school has been shut post the attack and the children have been asked to stay at home. According to an NDTV report, nothing has been stolen from the school. The media has been barred from entering the school premises. [caption id=“attachment_1871221” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative Image. AFP[/caption] Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani, who is an alumna of the school, will visit the Holy Child Auxilium campus this afternoon before she leaves for Udaipur to inaugurate the new campus of IIM there. “The school principal today spoke to the minister following which she had also called up Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the issue,” officials in the HRD ministry said. The attack was condemned by Arvind Kejriwal, who is to be sworn in as chief minister on 14 February.

I strongly condemn the attack on Holy Child Auxilium school. These kind of acts will not be tolerated

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 13, 2015

A church was vandalised by unidentified miscreants in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area on 2 February, 2015. However, investigation into the case appears to have made little progress. The police, who said it was a case of robbery and not vandalism, filed a case last week, but they are yet to identify any suspect. The police said they were finding it difficult to track down the culprits due to the lack of CCTV footage. In Delhi alone, five churches were attacked and desecrated in a time span of two months. Last month, a church was vandalised in West Delhi’s Vikaspuri area. In December, the St Sebastian’s Church in Dilshad Garden, was partly gutted and the Christian community had alleged foul play in the incident.