Parents demand proper probe in case

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 16

The parents of the Class X student of Cambridge International School who had allegedly attempted suicide on January 10 this year – she fell off the fourth floor of the school building – today alleged that she had been harassed by boys of the same school moments before the incident took place on the fateful day.

The parents also alleged that so far the school had only provided them two seconds of the CCTV footage and no one knew where the rest of it was.

Addressing mediapersons at the Punjab Press Club here today, Naveen Gupta, the father of Khushi, who works with media, said, “It’s only about three days ago that my daughter started speaking. She is persistently naming two boys of the school — both of whom are students of Class XI. She said on the day of the incident, Ishant called her to the fourth floor of the building. When she went there, he showed her a nude photograph. Then he took her to the balcony where two chairs were lying. Climbing on one of them, he asked her to look down. Khushi says she looked down and saw students skating and beyond this point, she doesn’t remember anything.”

When questioned about the alleged suicide note with the words – ‘I Quit’- written on it which was collected from the site of the incident by the police, Khushi’s parents said, “It wasn’t written by her. That’s not her handwriting.”

Notably, both of Khushi’s feet, her spinal cord and her ankles have been broken in the fall. Her father said on the day their daughter told her this, he called the vice principal of the school. The parents of Khushi also made a formal complaint to the police today. Gupta as well as his wife Ruchi Gupta also alleged that the police had also not taken Khushi’s statement after she started talking. Her parents said they wanted a proper investigation in the case so that the truth about the incident might come out.

Gupta said, “Ever since we have told the school authorities about what our daughter said about these two boys, they have started distancing themselves from us. Pressure also began to be built upon us to discharge her from the hospital even though we are not convinced that she is fine. She constantly writhes in pain. We can’t take her home with her continuously complaining of the pain.”

He also alleged that while he had demanded the CCTV footage from the school authorities, it was not being provided to him. Gupta has demanded that a proper investigation should be made in the case, and the CCTV footage of the floor on which the incident happened should be provided to them so that the situation might become clear.

SHO police station No. 7 Onkar Singh Brar said, “We were not even aware that the girl has regained consciousness and is speaking. We weren’t informed about it. Earlier, when we tried to take the girl’s statement, we had been denied access. As far as the CCTV footage is concerned, as per the initial investigations there was only one footage, of the corridor, which has been provided to the parents.”

Speaking on whether the police was investigating the culpability of the youths, the SHO said, “This is a fresh complaint made in the case. We shall look into it as per the complaints made by the parents.”

School principal Deepa Dogra could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.