Minor’s suicide in Chandigarh: FIR filed over fake Insta account

The Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) and Punjab State & Chandigarh Human Rights Commission has sought a report from police and the school regarding the minor’s suicide case

The Cybercrime Cell of the Chandigarh Police on Monday registered an FIR in connection with a fake Instagram account of a government school reportedly used by students to post offensive content.

A Class 11 student of a government school in Chandigarh reportedly died by suicide at his house in Zirakpur on Saturday and his mother lodged a complaint with the Zirakpur police seeking action against a UT cop and the school authorities. (HT Photo)

This comes a day after a Class 11 student of a government school in Chandigarh reportedly died by suicide at his house in Zirakpur on Saturday and his mother lodged a complaint with the Zirakpur police seeking action against a UT cop and the school authorities. A case was registered against unknown persons under Sections 61(2) of the BNS, 2023, and Sections 66C, 67, and 67A of the IT Act on Monday following a complaint by the school principal. The principal of the school said she had filed a complaint with cyber cell to take down the account on social media involved in posting offensive content about teachers. “We were not aware who was behind the account and only got to know about it on Saturday when police called me to police station,” she added.

Following the complaint, a letter was sent to Meta (Instagram) requesting details about the ID. The IP address linked to the fake account was traced to the father of one of the students. Superintendent of police, Cyber, Geetanjali Khandelwal said, “A complaint was received from a principal of a government school regarding a fake page with offensive content regarding teachers. The IP address was traced, and a man was contacted by the police. When he was contacted, he took his son along with him. His son called other friends to the police station. All questioning was done in the common hall in the presence of teachers, principal and parents. The CCTV footage supports that the proceedings were peaceful. No physical assault or abuse occurred during the probe.”

CCPCR, human rights panel seek report

The Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) and Punjab State & Chandigarh Human Rights Commission has sought a report from police and the school regarding the minor’s suicide case. CCPCR chairperson Shipra Bansal said, “We have sent a letter for status and a report from the concerned department i.e. police and school in the matter”.

Human rights commission chairperson justice Sant Parkash took suo motu cognisance of the matter and called for a report from the SSPs of both Chandigarh and Mohali.

Director school education Harsuhinder Pal Singh Brar said, “The incident is very unfortunate. The department will wait for the police report.”

The kin of the minor student refused to cremate the body on Monday. The family initially proceeded towards the cremation ground in Zirakpur but refused to cremate the victim, seeking registration of FIR against the Chandigarh ASI and the school authorities.

--With inputs from Priyanka Thakur & Nikhil Sharma