New Delhi:
It's been a traumatic time for the staff and students of Birla Vidya Niketan School in south Delhi who used to ride on the same bus in which a medical student was brutally gang-raped on Sunday.
Meenakshi Khushwaha, the principal of the school, said, "The first thing we did was to cancel our contract with the transporter because it is very scary, especially for the children to know that the bus in which they travelled just a day before was where something like this happened."
The bus, which has tinted glasses and curtains, was among the seven belonging to Yadav Travels, owned by Dinesh Yadav. It was used by the school to transport its students. The school has had a contract with the bus operator for the past 15 years.
Driver Ram Singh, who is currently in police custody for his role in the gang-rape case, used to pick up and drop off students and staff along the Chirag Delhi route for the past 10 months. "There have never been any behavioral complaints against him from either the staff who accompany the children till the last stop or from parents so far," said Ms. Khushwaha.
She has also sent out strict missives to the owners of the other private bus operators that the school has contracts with to ensure that criminal and behavioral background checks are conducted on all the drivers they employ.
During its investigation, the Delhi Police had contacted the school and obtained details of its drivers and conductors to check if all necessary police verifications were made. Police claims that Ram Singh was not medically fit to drive a bus after a major accident in 2009.