St Xavier's Mirzapur in eye of storm: Vice-principal, parents accuse each other over missing 4-year-old

Tensions escalated at St Xavier’s Mirzapur School on Wednesday after a 4-year-old boy briefly went missing, triggering a heated confrontation between the child’s family and the school’s vice principal, culminating in police complaints filed by both parties.

The sequence of events unfolded around 1.30 pm when Rehnuma Banu, a resident of Shahpur, received a call from her son's autorickshaw driver stating that 4-year-old Abdul Ahad was not at school for pickup. Ahad, a senior KG student at St Xavier’s, had reportedly been sent in the rickshaw that morning but was untraceable at the end of school hours.

Alarmed, Rehnuma and her family, including her husband Mohammad Safwan and uncle, rushed to the school. As per the complaint filed at Shahpur police station, she approached Vice-Principal Colinben Suresh Kumar Rathore for assistance, only to be verbally abused and “thrown out of the office”. When her husband and relatives demanded access to CCTV footage to trace the child’s whereabouts, they were allegedly rebuffed again.

Shortly thereafter, the child was located within the school premises. Police were called to the scene, and Rehnuma proceeded to file a formal complaint, seeking legal action against the vice-principal for misbehaviour and negligence. She was joined by family members who also acted as witnesses.

However, the matter took another turn when Vice-Principal Rathore, aged 64, filed a counter-complaint from the emergency ward of Rajasthan Hospital in Shahibaug, where she was admitted following the incident. In her version, Rathore claimed that Gabbarbhai, Abdul Ahad’s uncle, entered his office, verbally abused her, and struck her multiple times with a wooden stick, causing injuries to her shoulder and head. Rathore said she was trying to calm the family, reassuring them that the child would be found, but was attacked instead.

“Even after explaining that the staff were actively looking for the child, I was assaulted without provocation,” Rathore stated in her police complaint.

Both complaints were registered at Shahpur police station, and officials have started an investigation into both matters. The police confirmed that two separate FIRs were filed under relevant IPC sections, including assault, verbal abuse, and criminal intimidation.

Shahpur Police Inspector P B Khambhala confirmed, “We are reviewing both the school’s CCTV footage and eyewitness statements to ascertain the sequence of events. Action will be taken based on evidence and findings.”

No arrests have been made so far. The investigation is ongoing.