Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, July 11
Dhanbad police on Tuesday arrested principal and teacher of St Xaviers School, Tetulmari on charges of abetment to commit suicide by a minor school girl.
Teacher and school principal had objected to the girl coming to school with lipstick marks on lips and Bindi (small coloured mark between eyebrows) on Monday. The girl was allegedly slapped by the teacher in assembly and asked to leave the school .
Ms Supriya Singh, wife of the arrested principal, Raj Kishore Singh told this correspondent over phone, “Police came and arrested my husband. My husband had asked the student not to come to the school with Bindi and lipstick marks and teacher, Ms Sindhu Jha had reprimanded her in presence of other students for misbehaving with the principal.”
A K Yadav, officer-in-charge of Tetulmari police station said Ms Vandana Devi, mother of the class 10 student Usha Kumari had filed a report with the police alleging her daughter hanged herself to death in school uniform on return from the school. She has blamed the school principal and teacher for forcing her daughter to take extreme step.
Police recovered a suicide note reportedly written by the minor girl from her uniform at Nirmal Mahto Hospital. In the suicide note, Usha Kumari alleged that the teacher had slapped her in the general assembly in presence of other students. Though Ms Sindhu Jha was teacher for junior classes, she has no authority to reprimand a student of tenth class. When the student objected, she slapped her.
According to the complaint filed with the police, the girl was in depression and immediately after her return from school, she tied herself to the ceiling fan with a suicide note in her pocket.
Residents of Hanumangarhi area in Tetulmari started protests on the high-way in the coal capital demanding arrest of the school principal. They blocked movement of vehicles too. Local deputy SP, Ms Nisha Murmu, who visited Tetulmari, a coal mines area, said after receiving assurances from the administration, road blockade was lifted.
Principal denied allegations of girl being slapped in the school and claimed the student had misbehaved with the teacher in the assembly and as head of the school he had scolded her.
