Principal tells teacher not to wear burqa, lands in soup

Naupada police took custody of Fr Pinto on Monday after Sanad Shaikh (21), a resident of Rabodi, complained against him. According to her, the principal rebuked her for wearing a burqa in

the classroom and told her to attend school only without it. Fr Michael Pinto in police custody The principal of a Thane-based convent school has been questioned by Naupada police for his

alleged rude remarks against a teacher who came wearing a burqa to work. Also, a few students of St John the Baptist High school have complained that their principal, Fr Michael Pinto, has

often ridiculed them for being Muslims. Naupada police took custody of Fr Pinto on Monday after Sanad Shaikh (21), a resident of Rabodi, complained against him. According to her, the

principal rebuked her for wearing a burqa in the classroom and told her to attend school only without it. "When I went to the office to submit papers, Fr Pinto approached me and started

screaming at me saying that I should not wear a burqa. He also said that I should keep religion at home," said Shaikh, a teacher who has joined the school for internship. "I

explained to him that I cannot remove it as it's against my religion, but he kept on shouting. Later, I informed my brother about the incident," she added. Meanwhile, three

students from Class IX too came forward to file a complaint against the principal. According to them, Fr Pinto targeted them in the classroom for belonging to a certain community and told

other students to not be friends with them. One of the students said: "The principal often asked the Muslim students to stand up and rebuked us by saying that our community was behind

the terror attacks in France and Bangladesh." "We were given a cloth to mop the auditorium as punishment just because we are Muslims," said another student. Fr Pinto, however,

denied all the allegations and said, "We have Muslim teachers and they are respected equally. Yes, I did ask the teacher to not wear burqa for security reasons and I did discuss the

terror attacks in France and Bangladesh for informative purpose. There was no communal motto behind it." Senior inspector Gajanan Kabdule said, "We have taken the statements of the

teacher and the students and are in the process of filing an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code."