In Jind school abuse case, mystery over girl's suicide

Tribune News Service

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, November 11

Mystery shrouds the alleged suicide by a Class XI girl, a student of the government senior secondary school in Jind district whose principal has been arrested on charges of sexual harassment and molestation of several girls.

Wasn’t depressed

• Two months ago, a Class XI girl had ended her life after returning from school
• Her mother didn’t have any inkling about the reason
• The girl was not in any kind of depression, her mother said

Sources said two months ago, the girl allegedly hanged herself to death at her house after returning from school. An official, who visited the victim’s house after the incident, told The Tribune that the allegged suicide had remained a mystery till today.

“The girl’s family was shocked by their daughter’s suicide. Her mother told me that they did not have any clue about their daughter’s extreme step and that she never seemed to be in any kind of depression,” he said. The official informed that the family had cremated the body the same day.

Janwadi Mahila Samiti (JMS) activist Jagmati Sangwan said, “In view of the exploitation by the arrested principal, a thorough probe must be conducted into all incidents of harassment and also the suicide by the girl student. It is shocking that so many teachers and non-teaching employees remained mute spectators to the exploitation by the principal, who used to flaunt his high political connections.”

She wondered how, despite his alleged misdemeanours in schools of his previous postings, he got transferred to an all-girls school. The JMS leader demanded a high-level inquiry into the case.

The principal was booked under Sections of the IPC and POCSO Act in October and was arrested on November 4. He is presently in judicial custody. The inquiry has so far revealed that he used to trap the girls who would be caught with a mobile phone or were found in the company of a boy outside the school. “He even used to threaten to fail students in the examination,” sources said.

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