Sunirmal Chakraborty, principal of La Martiniere, one of Kolkata’s most reputed schools, and four teachers are facing arrest for allegedly abetting the suicide of a class-VIII student. Rouvanjit Rawla, 13, had hanged himself at his home on February 12.
His father Ajay was in a state of shock for the first few months after the tragedy, but later started probing the reasons for the suicide. On Wednesday, four months after the suicide, he lodged a police complaint against the principal and the teachers.
In his complaint, Rawla says the five accused had been torturing Rouvanjit, both mentally and physically, which prompted him to take the extreme step.
Explaining the delay in filing the police complaint, he said initially, he was too shocked to decide what to do.
“However, later I found out from my son’s classmates that the principal and the four teachers would frequently humiliate him. The classmates confirmed he was caned for indiscipline. It was constant victimisation, humiliation and ridicule that forced my son to end his life,” Rawal said.
This the second time in a span of a month that La Martiniere School for Boys finds itself at the centre of a controversy. Last month, a teacher of the school was arrested by police for demanding a laptop from the parents of a student to promote him.
The Rawlas have also lodged a complaint with the national commission for protection of child rights, which has started its own probe.
