Coming home from school on Tuesday, nine-year-old Nitam said she had been caned at school. A few hours later, she died.
According to Nitam’s father Pappu Nishad, she had been beaten by a teacher’s husband, who was filling in for his absent wife. And Nitam died, he said, because of the beating, which must have caused some internal injury. Will there be justice?
The school authorities are on the defensive. Headmaster Awadesh Singh of the school in Ramchandipur said Anuj Singh had taken no classes that day. He had come to drop his wife, Shiksha Mitra Sweta Singh, who is handicapped, to school.
“The postmortem report suggests that the girl had some cardiac problems,’’ said AP Singh, SP, Varanasi Rural.
While the headmaster has been suspended, Shweta’s stipend has been put on hold, pending investigation.