Telangana minority residential college principal, staff suspended after minor girl delivers a baby

The incident

Sirgapur Sub-Inspector Narayana rescuing the baby girl. (Supplied)

As per sources, people in the Sirgapur Mandal of the Sangareddy district found an abandoned baby girl in a dustbin on 24 March.

They informed the Sirgapur police, who first took the baby to a child welfare hospital and later handed her over to the Sangareddy Women Development and Child Welfare Department.

“We have registered a case under IPC Section 317 (abandoning a child intentionally),” Sirgapur Sub-Inspector Narayana, who rescued the baby, told South First.

“The investigation is going on and we are asking her family and relatives to establish the identity of the baby’s father,” he added.

However, 13 days after the incident, the cops said that neither have they arrested anyone so far nor have they been able to identify the baby’s father.

‘Principal dumped baby in dustbin’

The notice released by TMREIS. (Supplied)

Local political party Majlis Bachao Tahreek (MBT) spokesperson Amjed Ullah Khan visited both Narayankhed and Sirgapur on Wednesday, 5 April, with locals and activists from rights organisation Muslim Action Committee (MAC).

He alleged that the TMREIS Junior College Principal Manjula did not inform the higher authorities about the baby.

“Instead, she drove all the way to meet the mother of the minor girl and pressured her to give a statement that the baby was born in the village and not in the college, as she wanted to avoid her role and responsibility,” Khan told South First.

The MBT leader claimed that the principal drove down all the way from Narayankhed to Sirgapur, around 15 kilometres, and dumped the baby in a dustbin.

“In the past, too, locals complained against her for carelessness in performing her duty. During the Bathukamma festival, she made all the girls dance while wearing burqa. So, the locals raised their voice against that as this is a minority institution,” local activist and MAC general secretary Waheed Tahir told South First.

South First tried to contact minorities residential junior girls college Principal Manjula multiple times, but the calls went unanswered.

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Series of questions and demands

Amjed Ullah Khan and local activists have raised several questions as well as demands in connection with the incident.

MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan (second from left sitting) and locals giving representation to the Sirgapur police.

Khan said, “How come a minor girl staying in a government college hostel got pregnant without the administration noticing it? What was the nurse doing? What was the principal’s intention behind not informing her superiors and why did she not give a written complaint?”

He added, “How come the baby was found 15 kilometres away in a dustbin by the Sirgapur police when she was born in Narayankhed? Under whose pressure have the Sirgapur police not located the father of the baby and not arrested anyone so far? The cops need to investigate the rape and harassment angles as well. ”

While demanding the case be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the MBT leader also called for the arrest of all the suspended school staff for not informing higher authorities and suppressing the facts.

He also demanded the government instal CCTV cameras in all-girl residential hostels and the posting of women police constables in these hostels.

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