Dalit student in Chennai allegedly asked to pay bribe for admission at Kendriya Vidyalaya 

The principal of a Kendriya Vidyalaya school here was caught red-handed on Monday when he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs one lakh for allotting a class one seat to a Dalit boy under RTE quota, the CBI said. 

In a trap laid by CBI, E Ananthan, Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ashok Nagar, was at the Sivan Park, KK Nagar, on Monday night when CBI officers surrounded him as he was allegedly getting the bribe from the complainant Rajendran, who wanted his son to be admitted in Class one of the Central government-run school.

Sources said the principal had initially demanded a bribe of Rs two lakh and finally settled for Rs one lakh. “The Dalit student was to be enrolled under the Right to Education quota for SC candidates, for which the principal had demanded a bribe and while receiving it he was nabbed by   CBI,” said a source.”The principal had asked the parent to come to a park at K K Nagar on Monday night, when sleuths who were hiding, nabbed him red-handed,” the sources added. Officers from Anti-Corruption Bureau, CBI conducted raids at his residence at Ashok Nagar and the school campus and he was remanded to judicial custody by a CBI court in the city till April 24.

Investigation revealed that Rajendran resided at Koyambedu and had applied for admission online. “However, despite getting an approval online, he was asked to pay a bribe for the admission,” the sources said. “The principal had told Rajendran that admission under RTE Act was applicable to children in the age group of six to 14 free of cost in a school in his/her neighbourhood within a radius of three km. However, since his house was more than seven kilometres away, he has to pay the bribe,” said the source.
When Express visited the school on Tuesday, a list of the selected and waitlisted students was stuck at the school entrance. However, a staff at the school said the list will be removed and the new list of admitted students will be published in a few days. In the list, 40 seats were allotted for students under RTE and the school had received 144 applications this year. 

Meanwhile, Karuppaiah S, State president, All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations said earlier admissions under RTE would be conducted by the lot system since such issues of demanding bribe was prevalent and the deserving students were not given seats. The system was made online to overcome these issues. However, some schools still follow the lot system.