Kota school principal arrested for deleting Ganesh festival post on WhatsApp group

A principal of a government school in Kota belonging to a minority community was arrested on Friday night for allegedly deleting a couple of posts on Ganesh Chaturthi festival from a social media group of the school committee, said officials familiar with the matter.

“The principal belongs to a minority community. On Friday, he deleted two posts on a WhatsApp group of the Block School Development Committee that enraged the other members including a few teachers of the Hindu community. They started staging a protest in front of the school. We have arrested the principal at night for attempting to disturb the social harmony,” said Uttam Singh, the station house officer of Kota’s Bapawar Kala.

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According to police, many schools have a development committee comprising the principal, schoolteachers, block education officer, a few guardians, and other officials. “The committee, sometimes, also maintains a WhatsApp group to discuss the necessary decisions. On the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, the members were sharing posts expressing good wishes to each other in that group on Friday morning. However, the principal, Muhammed Shafiq, deleted one post which was primarily ignored by the members. The action was repeated with another post about two hours later when the members got angry and started protesting against the principal,” said the SHO.

The tension escalated when a large number of villagers, and also a few people of local Hindu outfits reached in front of the school and started protesting against the teacher. “Police immediately reached the spot and deployed an additional force to maintain the law-and-order situation while a few WhatsApp group members and other villagers also lodged an FIR against the principal.”

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The case was lodged under Section 196 (disturbing communal harmony) of the BNS.

“We have arrested the principal late at night. He said the move happened mistakenly which seems a bit unusual as he did it twice within two hours. We are questioning him. Further investigation is underway. The peace was reinstated in the area by Saturday morning,” said the SHO.