Three students in their statements to the police stated that Fr Pinto had allegedly asked them to mop the auditorium and told other students to not be friends with Muslim students.
The principal of Thane's St John Baptist High School is likely to be shunted after he allegedly pulled up a teacher for wearing burqa inside the school premises and rebuking Muslim pupils for the terror attacks in France and Bangladesh.
dna on Tuesday had reported about the incident wherein Fr Michael Pinto was questioned by the Naupada police for allegedly passing rude remarks against Sanad Shaikh (21) because she came wearing a burqa to school. He had also told her to keep religion at home.
Three students in their statements to the police stated that Fr Pinto had allegedly asked them to mop the auditorium and told other students to not be friends with Muslim students.
"It is clear a message to other convent schools. It was my sister and the three students who took brave steps to teach the principal a lesson," said Nadir Shaikh, brother of Sanad.
"Teachers from the school and senior priests from the region apologised to us. They requested us to give them a chance and assured us that such mistakes would not be repeated. The priests assured that they will transfer Fr Pinto to some other school," added Shaikh.
A student who came forward to file a formal statement against the principal said: "We have been facing such kind of insults for a long time. Every time he visits our classroom, he passes insensitive comments on our religion to make sure that Muslim students feel ashamed about their community."
When contacted, Fr Michael Pinto said, "I have not been told about the transfer. We did apologise to the teacher. But my intention of telling her to remove the burqa was not communal," said Fr Pinto.
"We hold various events for students during Eid and offer namaz as we teach secularism. The allegations made against me are a vendetta since we don't give admission to students on any recommendation but only on merit," added Fr Pinto.
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 "Fr Michael Pinto")
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