Shimla school horror: 3 teachers assault 8-year-old Dalit boy, place scorpion in pants

Three teachers of a government school in Shimla, including the headmaster, have been booked for repeatedly assaulting an eight-year-old Dalit boy and placing a scorpion in his pants, police said on Sunday.

In a police complaint, the father of the boy — a Class I student of Government Primary School at Khaddapani area in Rohru sub-division of Shimla district — accused headmaster Devendra and teachers Babu Ram and Kritika Thakur of frequently physically assaulting his son for almost a year.

The complainant said that continuous beating caused the child's ear to bleed and damaged his eardrum. He also said the teachers took his son to the school's toilet, where they placed a scorpion in his pants.

Following the complaint, police have registered a case under Sections 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 3(5) (criminal acts in furtherance of a common intent) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and for cruelty towards a child under the Juvenile Justice Act.

The teachers have also been charged under sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act pertaining to forcibly removing clothes or similar acts derogatory to human dignity, and crime against a member of the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.

A communication is being sent to seniors for directions as to whether the investigation is to be conducted by a gazetted officer, police said.

According to the father, the teachers intimidated the boy telling him that if he complained at home, they would have him arrested.

He said that on October 30, the headmaster allegedly threatened to expel the child from the school. He said the complainant's family would face severe consequence if the matter was made public and threatened them saying, "We will burn you."

The boy's father was also warned not to lodge a police complaint or post about the incident on social media, or he would have to "wash his hands of life."

The complainant also alleged that Kritika Thakur's husband Nitish Thakur has been illegally teaching students at the school in her place for the last one year.

He also alleged caste-based discrimination by teachers at the school. Nepali and Harijan students were made to sit separately from Rajput students during meals, he said.

This is not the first incident of teachers assaulting students or caste discrimination in Rohru.

Last week, a teacher at Government Primary School in Gawana area of Rohru was suspended for beating a student with a prickly bush.

Earlier, a 12-year-old Dalit boy allegedly committed suicide at Limda village in Rohru after some upper caste women locked him up inside a cowshed for entering their house.