Fallout of schoolgirl's molestation: Mumbai school bans all private vans

Reacting to the alleged molestation of a class I girl by a school van driver, the Andheri school is all set to ban all private vans ferrying children.

The school will encourage parents to use transport services provided by the school as the administration is taking responsibility of the students' safety in their own buses whereas private vehicles are out of their control.

Principal of the school told mid-day, "We are issuing circular to parents that no child will be allowed to use private vans. The school buses have trained staff and we are also looking after children's safety on those by adhering to all guidelines. The private vehicles however are out of our control. However it will not be an immediate change, as we would give time to parents to choose their convenient alternatives."

The D N Nagar police station on Monday arrested the accused Abdul Rehman alias Rauf Shaikh (33) following a complaint by the child's parents and school. The accused had allagedly molested the child twice on February 11 and 12 and had threatened her with killing her parents if she spoke about it to anyone. The child who opened up to her parents after the second incident was able to identify the person following which a police case was filed. The incident had occurred during lunchtime when the child was in playground.

The school principal added, "We have handed over the case to police and we are cooperating with their investigation. We already have much security measures such as CCTV surveillance on campus and having an adult supervising children during lunchtime while they are on playgrounds. But we are increasing the number of CCTVs. We already are taking good-touch bad-touch workshops with children. But we want parents to opt for official school-buses as they are under our control and we are doing all we can to ensure children's safety on those."