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Accompanied by two others, Ramesh Bhattacharjee visited the school at 3.30 pm, met the principal and school secretary and sought a report on the incident.
The school, which is under scrutiny from various agencies including Kolkata Police, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Council for School Certificate Examinations in India, readily agreed to submit a report by the end of the week.
On its way out, the “team” also spoke to reporters waiting at the gates and said they would visit the parents of the deceased child and neutrally look into the issue.
On Thursday, the school authorities were taken aback when they received a call from the director of the HRD Ministry in New Delhi’s Shastri Bhavan, asking for a report on the “team” and what had transpired that day. The HRD minister, Kapil Sibal, denied sending any team.
“The desired information has been sent to the ministry,” said an official release from the school.
“We also sent a copy of our report to the DC South and OC, Shakespeare Sarani police station, for information and necessary action,” said Supriya Dhar, secretary of the school.
When questioned, two members of the “team” — Dilip Dutta, (Retd) deputy secretary of Higher Education Department, West Bengal and Anthony Arun Biswas, a representative of Anglo Indian Community — said they had only accompanied Bhattacharjee, who is associated with the ministry “in some way”.
“Ramesh Bhattacharjee asked me to accompany him. I thought he must have clear directions from ministry,” said Dilip Dutta. Bhattacharjee is actually a member of Rastriya Sanskrit Parishad, which comes under the purview of the Union HRD Ministry. “I visit a number of schools, including Anglo-Indian schools, to spread Sanskrit and I visited La Martiniere,” he said. “Since the Rouvanjit issue is at its peak, I asked the school authorities about it and they agreed to give a report.” Bhattacharjee also faxed a letter to HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday, explaining that he felt it was his “moral responsibility to get acquainted” with the Rouvanjit issue. “As soon as I receive the report, I will send it to you for your information and kind advice,” he assured the minister.
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