In a shocking development, 16 minor girls between the ages of 4 and 5, were locked in the basement of their school by the authorities, allegedly because their parents had failed to pay the monthly fees.

A report by India Today states that the incident took place in Rabea Girls’ Public School in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area on Monday, 9 July.

When the parents of these kids, all from kindergarten, went to pick them up at 12.30 pm, they were informed by the school staff that the kids were locked up and had been marked absent by the management, because their fees had not been paid.

Accordingly, a case under Section 342 (wrongful confinement) and Juvenile Justice Act Section 75 (cruelty to child) of the IPC was registered and a probe into the incident was launched, the Hindustan Times reports.

“We have sent a notice to the school principal. We will also record the statements of all concerned parents,” said the police.

The parents, in their statements, claimed to have already paid the fees. According to the Hindustan Times report, many even produced the receipts of fees paid. But the school authorities countered that the same wasn’t recorded in the school’s database.

The principal said that the teachers wouldn’t have known if the fees had indeed been paid, because they hadn’t received the slip that was meant to be handed over to them.

In response, the parents said that the date on which they are meant to hand over the slip to the teachers is the 11th of every month.

“Why wasn’t a notice issued to us in the previous week?” they asked, reports Hindustan Times.

The parents further alleged that the school authorities had detained the girls in the school’s basement for a total of five hours – from 7.30 am to 12.30 pm – even as the temperature touched 40 degree celsius, The Asian Age reports.

The school authorities further countered parents’ claims by saying that the girls were kept in a “recreation room” and not the basement.

(With inputs from ANI, India Today and The Asian Age)