The high court on Tuesday gave two more days to police to arrest those accused of beating up teachers at a school in Narendrapur after the cops failed to carry out Monday’s order to round them up within 24 hours.
Justice Biswajit Basu issued the new deadline in the afternoon after observing that no arrests had been made till Tuesday morning.
The court also directed the superintendent of the Baruipur police district, Palash Chandra Dhali, to appear before it virtually and explain the failure to implement Monday’s order.
Dhali informed the court that a team led by an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police had been set up to conduct raids in search of the accused.
Two more persons, he informed the court, have been arrested, taking the number of people behind bars in connection with the assault to four. He, however, did not mention whether the two were among the accused named in the FIR.
Dhali then requested the judge for two more days to execute his order.
Accepting the appeal, Justice Basu said the accused would have to be arrested within two days and police must submit a compliance report on February 5.
“Are representatives of the local panchayat among the accused? Political leaders accused in the case should be arrested. How can it be that panchayat representatives aren’t available at their homes?” Justice Basu asked.
The police said two panchayat members named in the FIR had been untraceable for two days. Their family members have apparently told the police that they are not being able to contact the leaders.
Senior officers said raids were on to track down the panchayat members and the headmaster of the school, who is also named in the FIR as an accused.
“We have time and hopefully, will be able to arrest the accused by the deadline,” Dhali told The Telegraph.
On Saturday, a group of around 20 youths allegedly barged into classrooms at the school and attacked a few teachers.
The attack followed allegations that a student of the school had been raped by a teacher and the institution had kept the incident under wraps.
A section of the teachers told the police that they believed that the headmaster, against whom they had lodged a complaint of irregularities, had engineered the attack.
The headmaster had denied the allegation.
On Tuesday, the majority of the 700-odd students stayed away from classes. The campus wore a deserted look as only a handful of staff members and students turned up.
The high court on Tuesday directed the school education department to submit a fresh report on the alleged financial irregularities in the school after auditing the financial statements.