A court in Kakinada town today remanded in judicial custody two senior officials of a school in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh in connection with the brutal caning of three visually-impaired boys last week.
The school principal, identified only as Srinivas--who is partially visually impaired--and administrator K V Rao--who is visually impaired--were arrested yesterday following an outcry after the video footage purportedly showing Rao thrashing the kids with a stick was aired by news channels.
The footage also showed Srinivas purportedly pushing the children, who were begging for mercy, to Rao.
"The duo were produced before the court which sent them in judicial custody for 14 days," Kakinada Additional SP K Satyanarayana told PTI over phone.
The boys, aged 9 to 13 years, are students of class III and class VI at the residential school run by a charitable institute at Thimmapur near Kakinada. They were admitted to a local hospital after the incident and are curently undergoing treatment, police said.
Meanwhile, the district administration has temporarily taken over the management of the school and a detailed inquiry is on in connection with the incident which allegedly took place on July 18.
District Education Officer (DEO) Srinivasulu Reddy has said the funding of the school is under the scanner, besides various other aspects.
According to police, the corporal punishment was meted out to the boys apparently after they did not pay heed to the instructions given by the duo not to create nuisance in classrooms and for breaching the discipline by playing outside the school premises.
Rao and Srinivas were booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act following complaints of the parents of the victims.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had already assured of initiating strict action against those found guilty in the inquiry by police.
