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School headmaster thrashes 14-yr-old student to death in Bengal
Samim Mallick was beaten to death by his headmaster for not taking permission while going out of the school premises
A private residential school headmaster in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district allegedly thrashed a 14-year-old student to death on Monday night for stepping outside the premises to see his parents off without permission.
The boy, Samim Mallik, was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital and police arrested two people, the headmaster and the owner of the Al Islamia Mission school at Majlishpur, a remote village in Murshidabad.
“He was our only son. He was earlier studying in a government school. We admitted him in this private residential school so that he can perform better. But they killed him. I want the guilty to be hanged,” said his mother Shamima Bibi, crying inconsolably.
Sources said the victim’s parents had gone to the school to meet him on Monday evening. The boy came out of the school boundary to see them off. This allegedly enraged the school authorities as the boy didn’t inform them, and he was beaten up.
“The school authorities didn’t inform us. Around midnight, I received a call from the hospital authorities. When I called up the school, they told me our son had fallen ill while studying,” said Jugnu Mallik, the victim’s father.
The incident triggered protests and villagers blocked the state highway and clashed with police personnel. Most of the teachers at the school are absconding.
“We have arrested two persons – the headmaster Hanif Sheikh and the owner of the private boarding school Liton Sheikh - after the child’s parents lodged a complaint with the local Barwan police station,” said C Sudhakar, superintendent of police of Murshidabad district. The accused were sent to two days of police custody.
This is the third such death of students in schools in recent weeks. A 12-year-old boy was found murdered in a Ranchi school last week, with his internal organ damages skull fractured, while the Capital has been rocked by the alleged drowning of a six-year-old in a water tank inside Delhi’s Ryan International School.