Do you think the St Peter’s schoolboys committed the rape?’’ This is the question that greets you as soon as you enter Agra. And although the answer is lost in a whisper campaign from all sides, one thing is clear: quite a few reputations have been raped.No FIRs or complaints have been filed; for the record, the police say they ‘‘don’t know anything.’’ And at the St Peter’s College, a school for the city’s well-heeled and now at the centre of this buzz, principal Father K. Mathew is angry. He issued a press statement today ‘‘requesting the public and mediapersons to refrain from asking any questions.’’Speaking to The Indian Express, he said: ‘‘It all started with this irresponsible report in a local newspaper. If the media doesn’t stop fanning these rumours, there could be a law and order problem within the school itself as the boys are getting restive.’’The ‘‘irresponsible’’ report Mathew is referring to appeared four days ago in a local Hindi paper. Without mentioning any names, the newspaper report claimed that ‘‘seven students gangraped their teacher.’’ The next day, a TV channel picked the story up and slipped in a reference to St Peter’s College.Senior Superintendent of Police V K Maurya says that the police have made their own inquiries and have found nothing. ‘‘From the newspaper’s correspondent, we got a name of a teacher. When we contacted her, she said nothing had taken place. Another teacher’s name came up. But the second teacher also told us that the entire thing was false,’’ Maurya said.‘‘Until and unless the victim herself comes forward and lodges a complaint, we can’t proceed. The main question is who is the victim.’’Mathew says the question doesn’t arise since he hasn’t received any complaint from any of his women staff. And adds: ‘‘If any such incident occurred, the students involved will be dealt with in a strict manner.’’And since most of the students come from business families, a group of local businessmen have handed a letter of protest to the Agra district magistrate protesting against the slander campaign.Even a delegation of ex-students met the Additional District Magistrate today to register their protest.Sanjay Tandon, president of the St Peter’s Old Boys’ Association, calls it a ‘‘media war’’ and calls for a ‘‘ceasefire in the larger interest of the public, the institution, the ladies and the young boys, unless they have sufficient facts to substantiate the allegations.’’
