Police plans to issue summons to ‘rapist’ school dir on July 15

Mumbai: Almost two months after the mother of a three-year-old minor girl registered a complaint against the 57-year-old director of an Andheri-based International Board school, accusing him of raping the child, the accused director seems to have no plans of returning to the country. The police plans to issue a show cause notice and summons against him on July 15.

If the accused does not comply, the police will issue a lookout notice against the accused director as earlier reported by The Asian Age.

Deputy commissioner of police, zone 10, Navinchandra Reddy, said, “We have interrogated the parents, teachers and students as a part of the probe, and the only thing left is the accused person’s version of the allegations pinned on him.”

Officials in the MIDC police station told The Asian Age that the complainant mother had filed the complaint against the director on May 18, when he was in Europe, mentoring the students on an educational tour. He was supposed to return on May 28.

The police, however, decided to wait for him since he was in touch with the school authorities and parents, where he assured that he would return on June 25.

As he did not arrive in the country as assured by him, the police extended his relief by a week and asked him to return by July 2, which he failed to do again.

The police will now send him a show cause notice and summons by mid-July and ask him to present himself in the MIDC police station, failing which they will declare him an ‘absconder’ and start the procedure to issue a lookout notice against him.

DCP Reddy added, “We suspect that the accused director’s lawyer must have advised him to arrive late in the country, and following his advice, he is delaying his arrival. However, he has return to the country before July 30 as his visa expires by this month end.”

“The accused person’s family too is in the city and frequently visit the police station when called, so we hope he will return to the country for their sake. We have probed this case from all possible angles,” he added.

Case timeline

November 2016: The three-year-old was escorted to the director’s cabin by her female class teacher, where the accused allegedly raped her
May 16, 2017: The victim’s mother saw her daughter scratching her private parts, and on enquiring, she told the mother that a male teacher did ‘bad’ things to her
May 18, 2017: The mother lodged a complaint against the director, accusing him of raping her daughter
May 28, 2017: The police probed the case by questioning the accused female teacher and the teaching as well as non-teaching staff to ascertain the sequence of events

Missed deadlines

• The accused director who was supposed to return on May 28, extended his stay and the police was awaiting his return on June 25.
• The police extended the deadline to July 2.
• The further delay forced them to push the deadline to July 15, failing which a show cause notice and summons will be sent to the accused person.