Protest against school, FIR sought

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 20

A day after an 18-year-old girl, Simran Kaur, hanged herself in the classroom of the private school she was studying at, her family members and relatives today demonstrated outside the school, demanding registration of a case against the management. They said the school authorities were responsible for her death.

They even refused to conduct the postmortem of the deceased until the FIR was registered.

The dharna was lifted after senior police officials, including Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Gautam Singhal and DSP Vishaljit Singh reached the spot and assured of an appropriate action after getting the postmortem examination.

Deceased’s mother and sister, Manjinder Kaur and Gurpreet Kaur, respectively, said, “If Simran had died, the school authorities should have called the family before taking her to the hospital. Simran may have been forced to take the extreme step.”

The family alleged that there was no reason of her committing suicide as she was a lively girl. She did not tell anybody whether she had any problem.

While school authorities refused to talk, ADCP Gautam Singhal and SHO Sushil Kumar said an autopsy was conducted by a medical board. The autopsy report was awaited and further investigations were under progress. If found guilty, appropriate action would be taken, Singhal said.

Simran, a Class XII student, had committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan using her dupatta in her classroom. The incident came to light when a peon went to the classroom on the first floor to clean it and found the door closed. Her death had sent a shock wave among schoolteachers and students.