Parents accused of scuffle with school staff acquitted

Vadodara: Three women, whose wards study in Navrachana School in Sama, were acquitted by a local court on Saturday in a case of allegedly assaulting the school staff lodged in March 2018.
Kinnari Kharadi, Purnima Patel and Darshana Joglekar were accused of getting into a scuffle with the staff and behaving improperly over the results of their wards. The school had mentioned ‘passed and eligible for promotion’ in their results. The school had told police that they had made such notes in the results of students whose parents had not paid fees.
“The school has no right to make a note that the students are eligible for promotion,” said the parents’ advocate Kishore Pillai. In other students’ results, the school had mentioned ‘passed and promoted’, he added.
A day after the incident on March 28, 2018, an offence was registered against these parents at Sama police station.
During the trial, the complainant and other witnesses who were staff members of the school gave their testimonies before the court. “There were nine witnesses, but of them around four to five witnesses’ testimonies were contradictory. The prosecution mentioned about CCTV cameras’ footage, but they could never produce any such evidence before the court,” said Pillai. It was also argued that despite the presence of over 500 people at the gate of the school, these three women were targeted as were leaders of the parents’ association.
The court of additional senior civil judge and additional chief judicial magistrate, D J Parmar, upheld Pillai’s arguments for acquitting them. The court also observed that if the school had discussed the issue with the parents peacefully the conflict could have been resolved. “Any institution including the court should give an opportunity to any person to present themselves,” the court stated.