Angry over scratches on car, teachers thrash 3 school boys with sticks

Korba (Chhattisgarh), July 12: Three Class VII students were allegedly beaten up with sticks and belt and locked in a room for about three hours by two teachers of their school in Chhattisgarh's Koriya district over a minor issue, police said on Thursday.

According to police, the teachers were apparently angry as the car belonging to one of them suffered scratches and its number plate got damaged when the students were playing on the campus of their residential school. The incident took place yesterday in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (government residential school) in Baikunthpur town of the district.

"A case has been registered against the teachers- BP Gupta and Jiyut Kumar Chakraborty- based on a complaint filed by the school's acting principal late last evening," station house officer (SHO) of Kotwali police station R K Anant said.

According to the officials, the accused teachers, who have not been arrested yet, were dismissed by the school following the incident. As per the preliminary information, the three children, aged around 12 years, were playing on the school campus on Sunday night (July 8) after the power supply in the area went off, he said. Gupta's car, which was parked on the school premises, reportedly suffered minor scratches and its number plate got damaged.

"The teachers were apparently angry as the car belonging to Gupta reportedly suffered scratches and its number plate was damaged while the victims were playing in the school," the SHO said.

Yesterday, when Gupta got to know that these students were allegedly responsible for the damage to his car, he thrashed them in the school and then took them to his official residence located on the campus, where Chakraborty joined him, the officer said.

"The two teachers assaulted them with sticks and belts, following which they locked the children in a room for about three hours," he said.

After they were released, one of the children called up his parents, who reached there and complained to the school's acting principal, Gyanprakash Khess, about it, the SHO said. Khess took the children to the police station and lodged a complaint in this regard.

"The medical examination of the children confirmed multiple injury marks on their body," he said.

The teachers were booked under section 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) and provisions of Juvenile Justice Act, the official said, adding, their arrest will be made soon.

Koriya District Collector Narendra Kumar Dugga said that an FIR was registered against the two teachers and they have been terminated.

"Necessary directives have been issued to avoid recurrence of such incidents," the collector added.

PTI