The case caught the public eye after police officials turned up at the school five times to question students involved in a play.
The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed police officials in Bidar to file a response to photographs showing policemen in uniform questioning school children at Shaheen Primary and High School. The High Court bench led by Chief Justice Abhay Sreeniwas Oka asked whether police officials in Bidar were in uniform while questioning students at the school. Karnataka Attorney General (AG) Prabhuling Navadgi, in response, stated that they will verify whether this was the case and also suggested that the photos could be 'doctored'. The High Court directed Basaveshwara Hira, the investigating officer in the sedition case filed against school authorities in Bidar, to file an affidavit based on the photographs produced by the petitioner. The counsel appearing for the state government had earlier stated that police officials were not in uniform while questioning students in the school. However, photographs published in the media and submitted to the court by the petitioner show police officials in uniform while questioning students. The parents of four children questioned by the police submitted in the High Court that their children were questioned without their consent. Responding to this, AG Navadgi stated that the parents were pressured to write the letters. The High Court is hearing a petition filed by advocate Nayana Jyothi Jhawar and the South India Cell For Human Rights Education and Monitoring, a non-governmental organisation, calling for action to be taken against the police for its handling of the case. The school authorities were charged with sedition over a play staged in the school by students of classes 4,5 and 6 which voiced dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The play was staged in the school on January 21 and a complaint was filed by a right-wing activist on January 26 accusing the school authorities of sedition. Nazbunissa, the mother of a student and Fareeda Begum, the head teacher of the school's primary section, were arrested and spent time in jail for over two weeks before they were granted bail on February 14. The case caught the public eye after police officials led by Bidar Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Basaveshwara Hira turned up at the school five times to question students involved in the play. According to school authorities, four police officials were in uniform when the police visited the school to question students for the first time on January 28. "The police had asked for the students to be produced at the police station but we refused to allow it. The next day, the police turned up in our school, some of them in uniform, to question students involved in the programme. The impact of police questioning school children cannot be overstated," Shaheen Primary and High School CEO Thouseef Madikeri told TNM. Thouseef stated that investigating officer Basaveshwara Hira wore a shirt over his uniform while questioning students. Following this, the Shaheen Alumni Association wrote to the Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights pointing out that under section 107 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, only a Child Welfare Police Officer (CWPO) can deal with children. The police subsequently turned up at the school to question students on January 30, February 1, 3 and 4. On these occasions, police officials were wearing civilian clothes and the parents of the children were not present during the questioning. Bidar District and Sessions Court granted bail to the mother and teacher arrested in the case. The court also granted anticipatory bail to a journalist accused of uploading a video of the play and members of the school management. District judge Managoli Premavathi observed that there was nothing seditious about the play. "What the children have expressed is that they will have to leave the country if they do not produce the documents and except that, there is nothing to show that he has committed the offence of sedition. The dialogue in my considered opinion does not go to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection towards the government," she noted while granting anticipatory bail.
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