Delhi NCR’s air had just started to get chilly. I wore a brown Kashmiri pheran, perfect for the weather, and set out to report on the school teachers’ salary ‘scam’ in Greater Noida’s Dadri area.
Little did I know that I would be threatened, framed, sent to the police station, accused of being an extortionist, a fake journalist, and a terrorist hiding a gun inside my phiran.
My first visit to a Great Noida private school didn’t go very well. The story was of a sensitive nature. Over the past week, I interviewed more than 10 teachers working in Greater Noida schools who claimed they were being exploited by their employers.
My story on the alleged ‘cashback salary scam’ in Greater Noida illustrates how teachers earn well on paper but have to return a part of their salary to the management. In some cases, a portion of their monthly salary was debited from their accounts via pre-signed cheques, and in others, the teachers had to withdraw the money from ATMs and return it to the school cashier.
The first school that I visited was Sainthood Convent School in Dadri to meet Asha Sharma, the school’s principal and director.
I reached the school around 11am, signed the register, and got an appointment. I asked the principal questions such as the student-teacher ratio, the struggles of lockdown, and the school’s best-performing kids. Sharma comfortably answered these questions.
Then I asked about the salaries of the school teachers. “Kindly wait outside for 2 minutes,” she responded. Her face turned pale. She called someone on the phone who claimed to be her ‘manager.’ “Kindly come in the evening and speak to my manager about salary issues,” she told me and ended the meeting.
I persisted and said that I have other schools to visit. She then made me talk to this ‘manager’ over the phone on speaker mode. The man on the other end started yelling at me for asking ‘personal questions.’ I explained to him that I was enquiring about the allegations that some of the former teachers had made. I said I would leave if they didn’t want to respond or talk to me.
“Call the police. She’s here to extort money,” the manager then told the principal.
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Threatened with fake FIR
I was not allowed to leave the principal’s office. I felt they could start beating me up if I talked back or asked any further questions. I was relieved when the school administration staff said they were alerting the police.
But instead of the police, within 10 minutes, a man claiming to be a journalist, along with at least 11 other men, entered the principal’s room. They claimed to be members of the Dadri School Owners Association. In a bid to intimidate me, the school teachers then started calling me a ‘fake journalist’ who was there to ‘extort Rs 2 lakh from them’.
It didn’t feel safe. I was all alone in Dadri with a dozen men levelling all kinds of threats and allegations. I gave them my Aadhaar card, which they didn’t return until I sought police intervention.
Among them was the principal of Anshu Public School. “Teachers very well know what they’re getting into. Why do they complain now?” he said.
Another man yelled, “Isko andar band karwao, ye yahan 2 lakh rupaye maangne aayi hai!” (Hand her over to the police, she’s come here for Rs 2 lakh). I was repeatedly asking them where the police were, whether they had called them or not, because I felt scared for my personal safety.
The school administration said they wanted to check the car I was in to look for hidden cash. They were intimidating the driver, who had come to be by my side, fearing things could get violent.
I was finally able to leave the principal’s office. While I was waiting in the school premises for the police, a school owner who had followed me outside remarked on my clothes.
“We don’t know what she’s hiding under that big coat! She’s a jihadi, a terrorist,” he said. “People who look like her attacked the school in Peshawar. She’s a threat. She’s here to kidnap children!” He made these allegations because I was wearing a Kashmiri phiran.
In all this hullabaloo, I got a quiet moment with Sharma. “Aren’t you ashamed of lying like this?” I asked her. “Sometimes we have to do things that aren’t right,” was her response.
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RTI reporter
Back in Delhi, my office was on high alert. Our principal correspondent who covers crime, Bismee Taskin, was in constant touch with the police to ensure I didn’t find myself terribly alone in a terrifying place.
At the Dadri police station, the teachers filed a police complaint against me for extortion which they later retracted.
But the abject lack of any faith in or knowledge of journalistic processes was absolutely astounding to me. The police also asked me, “Why don’t you file RTIs if you need information?” “Aap aise he kahi bhi ghusne ka haq rakhte ho kya?” (Do you think you can barge in anywhere?) asked another officer, a sub-inspector.
The police said they had earlier apprehended reporters for attempting to ‘extort’ these schools in a similar fashion and that I should be careful.
Even with all the support I had, I felt a kind of fear I never had before. It was my first such experience. If I was an independent journalist or belonged to a minority group, that day likely wouldn’t have had the safe ending it did.
I went home, hugged my mother, played with my dog, and refuelled to go right back to the story. The intimidation and abuse only convinced me to keep digging.
(Edited by Tarannum Khan)