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CLASS 11 STUDENT’S SUICIDE: Ludhiana school students hold protest, seek arrest of accused
Dhananjay Kumar ended his life two days after he was allegedly thrashed, humiliated and harassed by his teacher, principal and school director in front of other students for wearing tight trousers
Students of SGD Grammar School, Dhandari Kalan, and their parents held a protest outside the school against the police for their failure to arrest the persons accused to beating up and humiliating a class 11 student who later committed suicide.
Dhananjay Kumar of Gurmel Nagar of Daba ended his life at his house in the wee hours of November 29, two days after he was allegedly thrashed, humiliated and harassed by his teacher, principal and school director in front of other students for wearing tight trousers. The police booked director of the school Prabhu Dutt, principal Saroj Sharma and teacher Poonam under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and 34 (act done by several persons with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code at Daba police station.
The protesting students and their parents were also joined by local residents who raised slogans against the police and the school administration. They demanded immediate arrest of the accused. Getting no response from the police, the protesters blocked National Highway-1 near Dhandri for 15 minutes in the afternoon, before the police pacified them. Assistant commissioner of police (ACP, Industrial area B) Sandeep Wadhera told the protestors that the police have already formed five teams for the arrest of the accused and assured that they will be nabbed within 24 hours.
Even former students joined the protest claiming that corporal punishment was a norm in the school. The protestors also produced a video of the school wherein a teacher is beating up a six-year-old child with a stick.
The school opened on Monday and heavy police force was deployed outside the campus. Tension prevailed in the area after some of the protestors threatened to vandalise the school.
PROBE TEAM VISITS SCHOOL
An inquiry team constituted by deputy commissioner Pradeep Agrawal, comprising SDM (west) Amrinder Singh Malhi and district education officer (secondary) Swaranjit Kaur, visited the school on Monday when a majority of the students were staging protest.
The team collected record from the school and also talked to the students but did not check the qualification of teachers and its affiliation with the Punjab School Education Board.
District education officer Swaranjit Kaur said the school has over 3,000 students from nursery to class 12, but they were yet to check if the school has affiliation for classes 11 and 12. Qualification of teachers is also yet to be checked, she said.
SDM Amrinder Singh Malhi said they met students and asked them about behaviour of teachers, principal and director. “We have recorded their feedback and a report will be submitted to the DC,” he said.
