School files complaint on illegal confinement of students

CHANDIGARH - St John’s High School, one of the oldest schools here for boys, has lodged a complaint against two people, including a state official, for illegally confining five minor students and forcing them to record statements against the school management, police said Friday.

The school authorities filed the complaint against Punjab Civil Services officer T.K. Goyal - whose son was earlier studying in the school - and Rohtas Sanghwan - a former employee of the school.

The school accused Goyal of calling five students to the house of a former student, Gautam, at Ram Darbar, a suburb here.

“Goyal tried to bribe innocent children by offering them monetary help and other aids. He told them to speak against the school management on camera. Thereafter, the students filed a complaint against the school and we were left with no other option than to approach the police,” a school official said.

“Earlier also, Sanghwan and Goyal had lodged frivolous complaints against the school. But this time, they crossed all limits as they tried to corrupt the minds of children,” he added.

S.S. Srivastava, senior superintendent of police, Chandigarh, said the police had received a complaint from the school.

Last year, Goyal had accused an arts teacher of the school for corrupting the minds of students by showing them vulgar websites and for insisting that they join adult social networking sites.

St John’s High School, established in 1959, is up to class 10. Around 2,000 boys study there.

Congress MPs like Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari and advisor to Chandigarh administration Pardeep Mehra are among its alumni.