Varanasi, (Samajweekly) The Shivpur police have arrested a youth for staging a demonstration with scores of children in front of a school on Airport Road, demanding school authorities not to allow wearing hijab by Muslim girl students.
School principal Nirmala Rathore made it very clear that the dress code is strictly followed in the school and no student is allowed to wear hijab.
On her complaint, police lodged an FIR against Himanshu Chaturvedi of Bharlai area and also arrested him.
Inspector Shivpur, S R Gautam said that Chaturvedi, along with many minor boys and girls, gathered in front of the school on Monday and started a demonstration.
The demonstrators carried a banner and placards with messages like ‘ban hijab’ and ‘follow dress code’.
Chaturvedi alleged that the school principal had permitted many students to come to school in hijab.
On getting the information, Shivpur cops reached the spot and took the demonstrators under custody. Gautam said that as all the boys and girls accompanying Chaturvedi were minors, they were asked to go home after issuing a warning to not indulge in such acts at a time when model code of conduct is also in force in view of the assembly election.
After taking Chaturvedi into custody, the cops started investigating the matter.
The principal of the school termed the allegations of Chaturvedi as baseless and asked the cops to go through CCTV footage to see how dress code is followed in her institution. She said that school authorities were not answerable for the attire of anyone worn outside school campus but inside the school dress code is followed strictly.
The hijab controversy had started in Karnataka recently and the petitions filed in this regard are sub-judice in the High Court of the state.
