Lucknow, September 27: A class 10 Dalit student from Adarsh Inte rcollege in Indian state Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya was beaten to death by upper-caste Hindu teacher Ashwini Singh in the ongoing violence against minorities in India. A FIR lodged against Singh at Acchalda police station and the accused is absconding. The boy was under medical observation but could not be saved.
Meanwhile, protests have broken out in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh’s Auraiya district on killing of a 15-year-old Dalit student two weeks after he was physically assaulted by a school teacher over a wrong answer in a test.
Two police vehicles were set on fire and some private vehicles were also damaged in an outburst that followed after the minor’s body was released to his family after the post-mortem. Protesters also agitated with his body outside the school where the assault took place. Protesters also pelted stones at police, it has been reported.
The teacher, who belongs to an ‘upper’ caste, is on the run.
He has been booked under sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code. Sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act have also been invoked.
According to the police complaint lodged by the father on September 24, the teacher had allegedly “thrashed him with a stick” because he got one answer wrong in a social studies exam on September 7. Some news reports have mentioned that the teacher used a “rod.” Some Indian news channels additionally reported that the teacher also “kicked him till he fell unconscious.”
The father has said that the teacher, having initially promised to pay for the boy’s medical treatment, gave the father Rs 40,000. He then stopped taking the father’s calls, according to his complaint. The boy’s father also said that when he confronted the teacher, he was abused with casteist slurs.
The boy received medical care at Etawah and Lucknow in the last two weeks. On Sunday, when his condition allegedly worsened, he was taken to a hospital in Saifai, where he was said to have been brought dead.