A 16-year-old Class 10 student from one of Delhi’s well-known private schools died by suicide on Tuesday after jumping from the Rajendra Place Metro Station. The boy's father has filed a case in which he has accused three teachers and the school's principal of mentally harassing his son so much that he was forced to take his own life.
According to the FIR filed on Wednesday, the boy left home for school at his usual time, around 7.15 am. His father later received a call around 2.45 pm informing him that the teenager was found lying injured near the elevated platform of the Rajendra Place Metro Station. The caller was asked to take the boy to BL Kapoor Hospital, but when the family arrived, doctors informed them that he had died.
In a suicide note recovered from his bag, the student apologised to his parents and wrote that pressure and mistreatment at school had pushed him to take the extreme step. "Sorry mummy, aapka itni bar dil toda, ab last bar todunga. School ki teachers ab hai hi aise, kya bolu (Sorry mummy, I broke your heart many times and I am doing it for the last time. This is how the teachers in the school are, what do I say?),” he wrote.
The boy’s father alleged that his son had been repeatedly harassed over the past few days. According to him, one teacher had been threatening the boy for four days, warning that he would be expelled and issued a transfer certificate.
Another teacher had allegedly pushed him earlier. The father said that during a dramatics class on Tuesday, his son fell, and a teacher insulted him and mocked him, saying he was overacting. He was allegedly scolded so much that he started crying. The teacher then said he could cry as much as he wanted and it did not matter to her. The father claimed the principal was present during this episode but did nothing to intervene.
The family also said the boy had earlier complained to them about mental harassment, and they had raised the issue with the school, but no action was taken. He said that they avoided taking stronger action as the Class 10 exams were going to be held soon.
"His exams were due in one or two months. Twenty marks come from the school. I did not want to disturb anything," he was quoted by news agency PTI as saying. The family had assured the teenager that he would be admitted to a different school once the exams were over.
In the suicide note found in the boy's bag, he wrote that whoever gets the letter to call a certain number and said he is sorry for what he did, but felt he had no choice because of what had happened at school. He even asked for his organs to be donated, if they are in a "condition to work".
"If any of my body works or is in condition to work kindly donate it to someone who really needs it," he wrote. Naming the principal and two teachers, he said his last wish is that action be taken against them so no other child is forced to do what he had to.
The boy apologised to his elder brother, who is 20 years old, for being rude to him, as well as to his father, for not being able to be a good man like him. Thanking his mother for always supporting him, he asked her to continue doing so for his father and brother.
"I am sorry but teachers ne aisa kiya hai mere saath (I am sorry, but the teachers have behaved badly with me)," he wrote.
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