Picture courtesy The Little Angels English Medium School, Malegaon
On Thursday, the court of Judge T S Sandhu, Joint Civil Judge Senior Division and Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, acquitted all the six accused in the Little Angels English Medium School cheating (IPC 420) case. All the six acquitted people are founders of the school.
While pronouncing the judgment, Judge Sandhu came down heavily on the investigating officer, the prosecution, witnesses, and the defence who were involved in the early stages of the trial for ‘utter disregard for the law’. Judge Sandhu also lambasted the six accused for their inability to pursue their case in a proper way despite knowing the fact that the case against them had no firm basis from day one.
The Voice of Malegaon reached out to senior advocate Azeem Khan who in a conversation with the Founder and Editor-In-Chief Ashfaque Ismail discloses startling facts about the case revealing how some vested interests were responsible for causing an unnecessary harassment to these school founders for thirteen long years. Excerpts;
Q: You successfully defended the Dhandharias in the Little Angels English Medium School cheating case. At the outset could you possibly throw some light on the facts of the matter?
Ans: The six exonerated accused namely — Manju Pawan Dhandharia (51), Priya Priten Agrawal (23), Priten Pawan Dhandharia – Agrawal (30), Tulika Lalit Dhandharia – Agrawal (29), Lalit Pawan Dhandharia – Agrawal (32) and Sangeeta Ashok/Ashish Dokania — have been acquitted by honourable Judge Shri Sandhu Saheb solely based on merit.
All the six had a dream of starting a top class English medium school in the heart of Malegaon. With that purpose in their mind, they embarked on this journey and set up the Little Angels Education Trust in 2004 and started Little Angles English Medium School under its banner.
Q: Then how did they land in a prolonged legal proceeding and who were behind the lodging of the case?
Ans: In the beginning (2007-08) , they were running a Kindergarten (Junior KG) in a single room. But soon afterwards they shifted to a new, a larger building in a nearby area as their dreams grew big. As they wanted to add more classes to their existing infrastructure (a one-room class), they went a step up and started standard first also. Their intention was good. They just wanted to impart quality education to kids.
Q: What has been the root cause of the litigation that we have been discussing for a while? Please elaborate.
Ans: All hell broke lose when a group of parents started levelling baseless allegations against the school and these trustees who now stand exonerated with honourable court’s judgment. The parents alleged that these people were demanding exorbitant amount of donation in the name of fee.
Also their allegation was that these acquitted men and women did not take permission to start the standard first class. And hence, according to their claims, the trustees were running an illegal school. However, they were totally unaware what law says as far as starting a school or a new class was concerned.
Q: So what does the law say as far as starting a new class (read standard first) was concerned? Could you possibly tell our readers?
Ans: If you read the Bombay Primary Education Act, 1947, you will come to know it clearly draws the contours on the subject matter and categorically states what needs to be done before applying for permission for grant or starting a school or for that matter a new class.
The law lucidly mentions that anyone who wants to apply for permission for a school or a new class should first put in place a proper infrastructure, hire teachers, give their salary and bring into existence a solid running school with kids studying in it.
Only after doing all these things they become eligible to apply for permission to start a school. And, mark my words, the Dhandharias complied with all these norms before applying for the said permission.
Q: What is the history of the case?
Ans: The group of parents claimed that the Dhandharias were running an illegal school. They had started standard first class for the academic year 2008-09 and ran it in the next AY 2009-10 too. But this group of parents came forward and started levelling the allegation of cheating and of running an illegal school.
They raised the issue with the Administrative Officer (AO) Malegaon Municipal Corporation (MMC) Education Board. Based on his findings, they then filed a case (CR No 30/2010) with the Chhavani Police under Sections 420, 406 and 418 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Q: A while ago you mentioned that a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was also filed in the matter. Could you tell us in detail when was the PIL filed and what recourse it sought from the honourable High Court?
Ans: The PIL was filed back in 2010. The HC asked the the Director School Education, Pune to conduct a thorough investigation and file a report within a stipulated time. The Education Director found there was no violation of law and subsequently submitted a report according to its findings in the High Court.
The honourable High Court then pronounced its ruling to dispose off the matter. However, despite a High Court ruling being in place the matter dragged on in court for thirteen long years and the now exonerated men and women had to bear the uncalled for harassment. Through out these many years, these school trustees were subject to ‘an utter disregard for the law’ by a few elements.
Q: There were reports that three prime witnesses in the case against Dhandharias were demanding Rs 50 lakh extortion money from them? How true is this claim?
Ans: The persons who brought up the case against Dhandharias were demanding extortion money from them. It was revealed at the later stages of the trial. These men are the three prime witnesses in the case. Between 2008-2015, they demanded Rs 50 lakh extortion money from Dhandharias.
They are now facing charges under Section 386, 506 and 34 of the IPC. The three witnesses have got anticipatory bail. Their trials are pending. The court has mentioned this in the acquittal order of Dhandharias. There is a video recording of the said episode of Rs 50 lakh extortion demand. It has been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad to verify its veracity.
