Gurugram student murder case: Ryan International no stranger to child abuses; boy molested at Mumbai school two years ago

Mumbai: The Ryan International School has been in the news for last five days for all the wrong reasons. The brutal murder of a seven year old child, Pradyuman Thakur, at the group’s Gurugram campus in Sohna area on Friday has earned the school widespread condemnation for security lapses across various campuses. Turns out, that Pradyuman’s murder was not the first instance which highlighted the severe irregularities in children’s security at the school campuses owned by or linked to the Ryan Pinto-led group. Several red flags have been raised in the past too. Two years ago, another incident of sexual abuse of a child at a Mumbai school — of which, both Augustine Francis Pinto and Grace Pinto are trustees — was reported. Mumbai Police had arrested the then principal of St Xavier’s High School, Poonam Nagar, Andheri for allegedly sexually abusing a six year old boy in the gents toilet in the school premises. [caption id=“attachment_4025109” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Ryan International School, Gurugram. News18[/caption] The incident dates back to 31st August 2015. When the six-year-old student narrated the whole incident to his mother, the parents of the victim and other parents took out a morcha and staged protests and vandalized the school’s property, spurring the police into action. The child’s parents had filed the first information report on 8th September at the MIDC police station in the western suburbs of the city. Soon after, a case under the stringent Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (Posco) was registered against the school’s then principal, Rozario Martin Alphonso, who was arrested and produced before a sessions court and had been remanded to police custody till 15th September 2015. Two year’s on, the charges remain unproved and Alphonso is out on bail. According to the police, Alphonso had allegedly taken the child to the bathroom and molested him spurring a protest of around 500 parents of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), who had gathered in front of the school and demanded strict action against the accused. As per the details in the complaint, the child had narrated the assault to his mother while she was dressing him up for school on 8 September. The boy told his mother that he had gone to the toilet at around 3 pm on 31 August, while Alfonso was also present in the toilet. After the boy went to the urinal, the principal came close to him and touched his chest and private parts. The child’s mother complaint about the incident to the boy’s class teacher and she also tried to meet the principal, who was not available. The victim’s mother then called on the child helpline number 1090 after which she was offered assistance in the case. Alphonso had been posted as the principal at the St Xavier’s School for nine years, before who was dismissed after the incident came to light. He had over 20 years of experience in the education sector. Alphonso, a resident of Malad area, was dismissed from the service after the case was registered, and he remains unemployed, according to one of his former colleagues at St Xavier’s school. The Ryan International School group runs more that 100 schools as part of the chain of St Xavier’s Schools across Mumbai and Maharashtra. In 1983, Augustine Francis Pinto started his first St Xavier’s High School in Borivali East, Mumbai with the help of his wife Grace Pinto. The Catholic school, affiliated to Maharashtra State Education Board then became the building block for the nationwide expansion of the group. According to the group’s website, Ryan International Schools are a group of private educational institutions in India that were founded in 1976 by Dr AF Pinto. The Ryan Group started its first school in Mumbai in 1976 and it currently has 186 schools located in 18 states within India and at many places outside India too. It employs more than 18,000 faculty members and has over 3 lakhs students across campuses. Every year around 30,000 students pass out from Ryan group of schools. The group is again in news after the killing of Pradyuman on Friday and the CEO of Ryan International Group Ryan Pinto is also under the scanner this time. A Haryana Police team is in Mumbai to question Pinto, amid allegations of grave security lapses on the school’s part and claims that the evidence in the case was tampered with. This was the second death of a child on the premises of the group’s schools in two years. Earlier too, the group’s school courted controversy after a six-year-old child was mysteriously found dead in the school water tank on 30 January, 2016.  Then too, voices had been raised about security lapses and negligence on the part of school staff.