The Bombay High Court (HC) pulled up the Mumbai police on Monday for being lax in safeguarding minor girls who were being harassed in the Sakinaka area by underage boys of the same locality. The girls’ families had approached the HC after the police—which boasts of the ‘Nirbhaya Squad’ formed specifically to safeguard women in the city—failed to act against the harassers.

Now, the HC has asked the Sakinaka police to ensure safety of the schoolgirls and enhance patrolling in the area. Additionally, the cops have been instructed to file a detailed affidavit in three weeks about the course of the investigation.  The matter was taken to court after the girls’ families approached it to register an FIR against a group of minor boys who had allegedly thrown eggs on a group of minor girls when they left their school premises on January 19 and the cops failed to take action.