New Delhi: The school principal and an English teacher at the Army Public School in Shankar Vihar have been booked for abetment of suicide of a Class 10 student. The move came after the boy’s father alleged that the duo threatened to withhold his son’s admit card for the February board exam, abused the 16-year-old and insulted his mother.
An FIR was registered on the father’s complaint under IPC section 306 (abetment of suicide) at the Vasant Vihar police station Thursday. According to the police, the boy hanged himself Monday from a ceiling fan at his father’s government quarters. The father, a havildar in the Army, said his son became the target of attacks by the school principal and the English teacher after he broke a chair.
“We have initiated legal action against the principal and the teacher based on the complaint by the victim’s father. The investigating officers have enquired about the 19 February sequence of events from several teachers and will continue to do so over the next few days,” a source in Delhi Police told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
ThePrint tried to reach the principal, Malini Narayanan, over the telephone and via text message. The story will be updated if and when she responds.
‘Insulted my wife, abused son’
In his complaint, a copy of which is with ThePrint, the boy’s father said his wife got a call from the English teacher, Radhika. It said Radhika informed his wife that her son would not get the admit card for the Class 10 board exam, scheduled from 21 February, and asked her to visit the school.
When his wife reached the school, she and her son were ushered into the office of principal Narayanan. His wife was then allegedly asked to pay Rs 10,000 for the chair that the boy had broken, or else his admit card would be withheld.
His wife, the complainant said, agreed to pay up, but the principal allegedly called her “various names” and “insulted” her in front of their son. “She questioned my wife about the upbringing of my son and also told my wife that she was not worthy of sitting in front of her,” his complaint said.
The complainant also said the principal “scolded” his son for 15 minutes in front of his mother, using “abusive language”. The boy, he alleged, came out of the principal’s office crying and sad.
In the afternoon, according to the complaint, his son took his life when his wife went out to a nearby shopping complex. When the father reached home, he came to know that she had left with his son for the Army Base Hospital in the Delhi Cantt area, where doctors informed him of his loss.
“I want to lodge an FIR against the school principal for having driven my son to commit suicide by illegally denying him the issuance of the admit card because of which he came under mental tension since he would have lost one year of his studies as also for insulting my wife and son for something very imaginary and/or mundane because of which my son took this extreme step,” the father said in his complaint.
The complaint also alleged that the senior military officers were made aware of the complaints against the principal but she wasn’t removed.
Sources in the defence establishment told ThePrint that Narayanan is wife of a retired Major General from Army’s Medical Corps.
If you are feeling suicidal or depressed, please call a helpline number in your state.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: Class 10 student of Delhi’s Army Public School dies by suicide, no suicide note found