Mumbai Police demands Rs 1.5 cr from school for providing security after 26/11 attacks

The American School of Bombay, which was provided special police security in the aftermath of the 26/11 terror attacks, has been asked to clear its Rs 1.51 crore due to the Mumbai Police.

The Bandra Kurla Complex campus of the school, where the children of several foreign nationals and diplomats posted in the city study, has contested the claim made by Mumbai Police saying it “didn’t ask for it”.

According to a Mumbai Mirror report, the office of the Andheri tehsildar has already initiated the process of recovering the amount and has warned that the property will be attached if the school refuses to pay up.

The school, which has 703 students at the moment, has sought a waiver, and Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve is looking into the matter to decide if they can be granted the same. He has informed that he will take a call on this soon.

Several police sources backed the school’s claim. They agreed that the BKC campus was provided special security cover after the terror attacks since several Israeli and American diplomats had approached the state government seeking extra security, but the school per se did not ask for it.

A senior police officer informed that even Barve has urged state bureaucrats to consider waiving off the school’s dues. Writing to senior government officials, the police commissioner mentioned that the school’s name was “erroneously added to the list of security dues defaulters”.

Stating that there was a clear terror threat at the time security cover was provided to the school, the senior cop said: “Kurla-based software engineer Anis Ansari, who was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad, had admitted to having plans to plant a bomb inside the campus.”

The school got dragged into this fiasco in 2016 after the Bombay High Court announced that individuals and institutions seeking police cover or having used their services in the past must pay up for it.