'Scolded over petty issues': Class 10 boy ends life in Delhi, alleges harassment by teachers in note

According to the suicide note, the teachers allegedly kept pressuring the boy to score better marks, and the child repeatedly told them “he was trying”.

A 16-year-old Class 10 student of a prominent school in central Delhi died by suicide at a metro station in west Delhi on Tuesday afternoon. In a note recovered by police, he blamed his teachers and the school principal for his death. Police have registered a case in connection with the incident.

A senior police officer aware of the matter said their control room received a call around 3pm about a boy falling from a metro station building in west Delhi.(PTI File/Representative Image)

He was still in his school uniform at the time of his death.

A senior police officer aware of the matter said their control room received a call around 3pm about a boy falling from a metro station building in west Delhi. When a team reached the spot, the boy was taken to a private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

A note was recovered from his possession in which he purportedly described being allegedly ill-treated by his schoolteachers. He wrote that his last wish was that no student should be treated the way he was, and said that four teachers he named in the note “must be punished”. He also apologised to his parents and older brother.

The boy’s father, 48, who runs a business in Karol Bagh, said his wife is a homemaker and his older son a college student in south Delhi. He said the teenager had been studying at the same school since Class 2.

“For the last one year, my son was being scolded and troubled by his teachers over petty issues. He told us about it, and we raised our concerns with his teachers but nothing happened. Even his friends were troubled by those teachers,” he said.

According to him, the teachers allegedly kept pressuring the boy to score better marks, and the child repeatedly told them “he was trying”.

The father said the family had decided to shift him to another school after Class 10. “We asked him to continue till the board exams because the school has discretion over 20 (internal) marks,” he said.

He alleged that on Tuesday his son collapsed at school, but his teacher told him he was faking it. When the boy insisted that he had fainted and began crying, the teacher allegedly dismissed that as fake too. This incident is described in the note recovered by police.

Police said a case under section 107 (abetment to suicide) and 3(5) of the BNS has been registered at Raja Garden police station and an investigation is underway. “We will be issuing a notice to the school to share CCTV footage of the incidents mentioned in the note. We will also ask the teachers named to join the probe and speak to the boy’s friends,” the officer said.

The school’s senior headmaster could not be reached for comment.

Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides are preventable. A few major suicide prevention helpline numbers in India are 011-23389090 from Sumaitri (Delhi-based) and 044-24640050 from Sneha Foundation (Chennai-based).