Mangaluru, 20 Feb

Education Department of Karnataka has begun inquiry into the controversial incidents at St Gerosa school, where a teacher was removed from her post for her alleged anti-Hindu remarks.

Additional Commissioner of the Education department in Kalaburagi, Akash Shankar IAS, who arrived in Mangaluru on Monday, collected preliminary information about the incident from officials concerned. The case relates to the teacher at the school who allegedly made some anti-Hindu comments while taking a class on Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Work is Worship.”

Shankar told reporters that he is here for a fact-finding inquiry about the incident. Preliminary information has been collected from officials, including the DDPI and BEO, at the office of the DDPI, he said.

He said a detailed report will be submitted to the stage government after the enquiry. The state government had appointed Shankar to probe the incident after a few parents of students of St Gerosa school alleged that teacher Sr Prabha had hurt religious sentiments of Hindus by making derogatory comments against Lord Ram.

Hindutva outfits and BJP leaders had protested outside the school, forcing the school management to dismiss the teacher.

The school management has denied the allegations against the teacher and had complained that two local BJP MLAs were behind the entire controversy. An FIR has been registered against MLAS Vedavyas Kamath and Y Bharat Shetty on the charge of creating enmity among different sections of society.