Headmaster kicks, then flings child to death

Amar Singh Gautam hit little Akanksha (7) with a stick. He then slapped her several times, kicked her hard on her back and then, to the horror of her sister Soniya (9) and other children watching, picked her up and flung her on the floor, reports HT Correspondent.

Amar Singh Gautam hit little Akanksha (7) with a stick. He then slapped her several times, kicked her hard on her back and then, to the horror of her sister Soniya (9) and other children watching, picked her up and flung her on the floor.

HT Image

She fell with a thud and lay motionless – and died two days later on her way to the local district hospital on December 23.

Amar Singh Gautam, headmaster of the primary school in Sarai Khati, a village 110 km west of Kanpur, with a predominantly Dalit population, walked away smiling from the class. He has been arrested.

Akanksha’s father Madanlal, a small farmer, wants justice. “I don’t care if he’s influential and he has lot of people helping him. My only mission is to get him severest of punishment. He’s a killer,” Lal said.

Gautam has a reputation of being a habitual child basher. At least two complaints of merciless assault on two other students reached the authorities this year. Each time, he was let off without even a warning.

“If the authorities had responded strongly, my daughter would have been alive,” said Lal.

The entire village is rallying behind him and is exerting pressure on the police to arrest the teacher and book him under the section dealing with murder on the basis of Akanksha’s dying declaration.

SP (Auraiya) Shri Dhar Pathak, however, said the police have charged the teacher with unintentionally causing death.

Gautam is pleading innocence but the autopsy report has confirmed that spinal injury resulted in Akanksha’s death.