<p>A protest outside MGM School in December. <o:p></o:p></p>

Nearly five months after Nerul's MGM school was besieged by protests against a teacher who is alleged to have sexually assaulted many students because of which a 13-year-old got pregnant, it has emerged that the principal of the school tried to hush up the parents by offering Rs 50 lakh to the parents of the raped teen and cowing them with the threat of “connections in high places“.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) shot off a showcause notice to the school which cites the intimidation by Savita Gulati, who was at the time the principal of Mahatma Gandhi Mission Primary and Secondary School, whose teacher, Harishankar Shukla, is accused of sexually abusing the students.

The school was found to have scuttled the investigation and Gulati was suspended by the management.

According to the notice dated April 27, the teenager's mother alleged that Gulati used “rough language“ with the parents when they came to seek her support for justice.“Tum log kuch nahin kar paoge. Hum logon ki bahut pahunch hai. Sirf dhkake khate rahoge. (You won't be able to do a thing. We have connections in high places. You will just get pushed around),“ the principal allegedly said to them. The statement had sparked large protests and disrupted the school's functioning, the notice adds. It further states that when the police came to question Gulati, she told the parents of other victims of Shukla's abuse: “You are middle-class people. You cannot do anything.“

After the case came to light in December, the Board constituted a three-member investigation committee to look into the case, after the mother's allegations became part of “a series of irregularities prevailing in the school“. She also alleged to the committee that after the incident, Gulati called her on her cell phone and offered Rs 50 lakh to withdraw the case, besides offering medical support including abortion at Trustees Hospital and free education for her children.

In September 2016, a 13-year-old from Std VII of the school was found to be four weeks pregnant after Shukla allegedly raped her many times be tween April and August last year. After the incident, the school modified the classrooms where the first rape took place, turning it into meeting rooms, making it difficult for any investigating officer to recreate the offence, collect evidence and draw a panchanama, the panel discovered.

It came down heavily on the management for failing to act against Shukla's “highly abnormal behaviour“ even though he'd crack adult jokes in class. Furthermore, Shukla “took advantage“ of the fact that the girls' toilet did not have latches.

The school did not have a committee for sexual harassment complaints. “The management has given a lame excuse that since the police had started the investigation they could not hold a parallel internal inquiry. It is evident that the school did not follow the Standard Operating Procedure that is required to be followed in such unfortunate eventuality. The school did not make any efforts to install cameras despite cautionary note from the State Home department. The school had only two cameras at the time of the incident but these were also out of order since February 2016,“ the committee noted.

Its findings confirm Mumbai Mirror's report that 18 complaints were given to the principal against Shukla, but action was taken.

The Board also said the school broke CBSE norms by simultaneously running a state syllabus school, a law college and a computer institute from the same piece of land. “This violation itself warrants de-affiliation of the school,“ the notice says.

The school has to reply to the show-cause notice, sent by the deputy secretary of the Board's Affiliation section, within 15 days, explaining why action should not be taken against it.

Mirror made several attempts to reach Dr Sudhirchandra Kadam, chairman of the school's managing committee and Dr Kamal Kadam, also cited as chairman on the school's website. But there was no response.

By Rahi Gaikwad

