The inquiry conducted by the Chandigarh Administration, which held Sacred Heart School guilty of expelling Ruchika under pressure, has been condemned by the school authorities, who called it “baseless” and “biased”.
“The inquiry report has no meaning for us... We plan to move the minority commission. And not only the minority commission, the entire Catholic Christian Committee is supporting us,” Father Thomas Anchainkal, vicar general of the Simla Chandigarh Diocese, said. “(School principal) Sister Sebastina is innocent and we will fight this matter to its logical end.”
The management has decided to retain Sister Sebastina as the school principal
Also, the management took a U-turn on Ruchika’s expulsion, saying that she herself withdrew from the school.
“Ruchika was never expelled for non-payment of fee, rather she stopped coming to the school,” Father Thomas said. “Since records show that her fee was not paid for several months, inquiry officials concluded on their own that the school expelled Ruchika for non-payment for fee. We have never ever expelled any student for not paying the school fee.”
But Sister Sebastina has been saying from the beginning that Ruchika’s name was struck off from the rolls because of non-payment of fee. In her statement to the inquiry officer also, she said the school expelled Ruchika because her fee was not deposited.
Even if Ruchika “withdrew”, the management had no explanation as to why her parents were never approached for the reason, as Class X was an important class.
Father Thomas also refuted the allegations made by the Girhotras that the school principal had misbehaved with them. Backing the school principal, he said they would “support her in every possible manner”.
Sources, meanwhile, said the school took a U-turn because it wanted support of the National Commission for Minorities.
“These stories are being cooked by the school to save themselves. The most astonishing was that nobody remembered Ruchika or anything about the molestation incident,” an official, who was the part of the inquiry team, said.
The magisterial inquiry was conducted by Prerna Puri SDM (South). Acting on its report, the Chandigarh Administration has demanded the state award back from Sister Sebastina, along with the Rs 5,000 prize money.
‘The principal should resign’
UT Home-cum-Education Secretary Ram Niwas said: “We can withdraw the school’s recognition, which will automatically lead to its disaffiliation from the CBSE.”
“The Administration has refrained from any such action only because of the fate of students studying in the school. Ideally, the principal should resign,” he said.
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