Bonai: The death case of a Class X student of Raja Dharanidhar High School here in Sundargarh district Saturday took a different turn after the police, acting on the FIR lodged by the deceased’s father, exhumed the body of the minor.
The father of the deceased has alleged that his son died due to corporal punishment he was subjected to at his school’s hostel.
The victim — 15 years old Muralidhar Bhumij – is the son of Mangal Bhumij of Belakudar village under Lahunipada police limits. He used to live in the school hostel.
According to the family members of the deceased, the NCC teacher of Raja Dharanidhar High School allegedly made him to do 300 sit-ups October 22 over some reasons. The punishment had left Murali severely ill. After being informed by the school authority on their son’s deteriorating health condition over phone, family members rushed to the school and brought Murali back home.
They carried on the minor’s treatment at home from October 23 to 28. He was admitted to Bonai sub divisional hospital October 28 as no improvement was noticed in his health condition. The same day he was shifted to Rourkela government hospital. The doctors treating him there asked the family members to take him to VIMSAR in Burla October 29. Instead of taking him to VIMSAR, the family members continued his treatment at Rourkela General Ispat Hospital for three days.
The child died November 2 while he was being shifted to VIMSAR. Family members brought the body back home and performed his last rites at Belakudar village the same day.
Mangal Friday lodged a complaint with Bonai police station alleging that his son died due to the corporal punishment he was made to undergo at the institution.
Registering a case (Case No-130/2019), Rourkela police, Bonai police station’s assistant-sub-inspector Bhupendra Majhi and Benudhar Naik Saturday exhumed the body in the presence of Lahanipada tehsildar Priyadarshi Sangram Keshari Khuntia who was acting as the magistrate. Later, a postmortem was conducted.
When contacted, the accused NCC teacher said the deceased student had never been a NCC student so there is no question of him giving any punishment to the student. “Some members of some private organisations had once sought my permission to put up their programmes on our school premises to which I objected. These members are settling their scores by implicating me into the case,” he added.
Banai sub divisional police officer (SDPO) Abakash Routray and Banai inspector-in-charge Rabindra Kumar Patra said action would be taken once the investigation is completed.
PNN
