Pune school girl students frisked before Class XII examinations; Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP call for probe

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP on Monday demanded a probe into alleged frisking of girl students at a school run by a Pune-based institute, while they had come there to appear for Class XII examinations. “Around 30 girl students from a school had come to take an examination in a school run by MIT in Loni Kalbhor. The girls complained that they were asked to remove their clothes for search in name of preventing cheating,” Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe told reporters outside the Legislative Assembly. [caption id=“attachment_4267989” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “But I am told by the state Education Minister Vinod Tawde that there is no such provision allowing frisking of girl students like this,” Gorhe claimed. “I am surprised to find out that all the girl students who were frisked by MIT guards belong to a particular school. The girl students from other schools who had their centre in MIT were not treated in this way. The matter should be probed,” said Gorhe. BJP MLA Medha Kulkarni said that she has personally raised the issue with Vinod Tawde, who assured her that the matter would be probed. “It is a completely unacceptable behaviour of the guards towards the girl students,” she said. Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and NCP leader Ajit Pawar also sought an action against the school administration and the guards who “frisked the girls”. “The centre should be changed immediately as those girl students would be uncomfortable in attending the exam. It could affect their results as there are 2-3 exam papers still to be attended,” said Vikhe Patil. “There should be a thorough probe in this matter. The women guards who frisked the girls in this manner should face some kind of action,” he added. “Such treatment to girls is shocking and it has never happened in our state. The government needs to step up and conduct an inquiry,” said Ajit Pawar. On Sunday, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education had denied allegations that two girls appearing for Class XII examinations were “strip searched” by two women guards at the school. The alleged incident, which occurred during the exams held between 21-28 February at the Gurukul School of the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), had caused an outrage among parents. Meanwhile, refuting the allegations, MIT has said, “The charges levelled against our two staffers are baseless, false and defamatory towards our institution.”