Govt schoolgirls lured to perform at private parties for ‘scholarships’
Parents fume, demand CBI probe; DSEK says ‘internal inquiry on’
Parents are fuming as their teenage girls studying at a government higher secondary school here had been lured to perform “cultural shows” at “brothel-like” private parties in return for “scholarships”.The plot got exposed earlier this month when one of the parents raised suspicion over the “clandestine scholarship” offer. She accompanied her daughter to the “secret venue” only to realize that she would have been served to the men waiting out there.
The story finds roots in autumn of 2015 when the government was busy organizing the “first-ever” Kala Utsav for schoolchildren in the state. During one of the functions, attended by the government top brass, girls from this particular school performed brilliantly at the stage.
After the colorful show, their “own school teachers” introduced the girls to a man who pretended to be “Director Radio”. As per the aggrieved parents, the teachers told the girls that this “senior official” would help them get “scholarships.”
This man, instantly shared his mobile number with the girls and told them that he would “soon visit their school” to give details about the “scholarship program”. He equally asked them to concentrate more on “dance movements.”
Sometime later this man visited the school. Apart from interacting with the students, he called on the school authorities.
The school principal confirmed that he visited the campus and deliberated about the “scholarship program.” But the principal insisted that she was unaware of what subsequently happened as she wasn’t impressed with his idea.
The parents, however, said their daughters were made to hold regular rehearsals at the school till the winter vacations were announced in middle of December last month.
Earlier this month, this man phoned some of the schoolgirls asking them to be ready to perform “before a selected gathering at a secret location where VIPs would decide about their scholarship and other incentives.”
Fixing the meeting for January 9 outside Women’s College MA Road, he asked the girls to “come in colorful clothes and wear nice makeup.”
The schoolgirls got excited to know that they would soon be getting “scholarships worth thousands”. But one of the parents could smell a rat in the offer as on the scheduled date the state was mourning the demise of late Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. So how could this happen?
To convince herself, she accompanied her daughter to MA Road. “Only two of the girls had reached the meeting point, the others stayed back,” the parents said.
After some time, this man arrived in a passenger TATA Sumo cab. As the girls got into the cab, the mother too rushed in. “He (man) had kept his face covered in muffler presumably to hide his face from co-passengers,” the parent said.
The cab drove towards the Boulevard. En route, the mother asked the man where they were going. And, he replied “just somewhere nearby”, till the cab drove over 12 miles to reach Theed, Harwan, near Dachigam National Park.
Here, this man, as per the complainants, asked the woman to go back home as he had to take the schoolgirls to a house where others were not allowed.
In a meantime a blue car arrived and the man asked the schoolgirls to get into it. But now the mother resisted. “Where have you to take them?” she asked. “Just there,” the man said while pointing towards house visible from the spot. Asking the girls not to leave the road, the woman managed to sneak into the house.
What she saw inside was shocking. There were no VIPs, no cultural show, either: Just a dozen odd men waiting there. The woman at once rushed out of the house: screaming, beating her chest.
Tightly holding hands of the schoolgirls, she rushed towards the Sumo stand where from she hired a cab and rushed back to city center.
As the news spread among the parents, they rushed the school staging protests against the authorities. “But the school authorities didn’t do anything,” the parents said.
The next day, the parents, with the help of one Shakeel Wali, President Kashmir Civil Society Coalition Accountability, managed to call on senior officials at the Directorate School Education Kashmir seeking strict punishment against the accused teachers “who pushed our daughters to honey trap”.
The parents also sought registration of FIR. But over a fortnight on, there has been no breakthrough even as the parents fear that the authorities were trying to hush-up the case.
“This case deserves a CBI inquiry. These girls were lucky, but how do we know how many others might have fallen in to this trap?” asked the parents even as they appealed Director General of Police to personally look into the matter.
Director Education Dr Shah Faesal confirmed that the complaint has come to his notice. “We’ve started an internal inquiry into the matter,” Faesal told.
Asked that complainants believe it deserved instant registration a police case, he said: “It’s for them (parents) to decide.” “If they want, they can go to police,” Dr Faesal said.
The official, however, that the case may not be linked with preparations for the Republic Day celebrations. “This case has nothing to do with January 26,” Dr Faesal said.
