TV
Odisha Police, on Thursday, arrested four staff members of a private English medium school in Keonjhar’s Champua in connection with the case of a 16-year-old student who died after falling from the rooftop of the school’s hostel building on July 12.
The arrested include a teacher, hostel warden, administrative officer, and hostel supervisor, all charged under the abetment to suicide provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), The New Indian Express reported.
The deceased was a Class X student at Kerala English Medium School and a boarder at the institution’s residential facility. He reportedly jumped from the fourth floor of the hostel building shortly after the morning assembly last week.
Despite being rushed to the local hospital in Champua, doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Allegations of Harassment
Following the incident, the boy’s father, Sudhansu Sekhar Pradhan of Chaibasa in Jharkhand, filed a formal complaint with the Champua police. He accused the school authorities of driving his son to suicide through sustained ‘physical and mental abuse’.
Acting on the complaint, police arrested hostel supervisor Daitari Sahu, teacher Shashi Shekhar Jha, administrative officer Prakashan T, and hostel warden Surendra Nath Mishra. The case has been registered under Section 108/3(5) of the BNS, which pertains to abetment of suicide.
Police officials said the arrests were made after verifying the father’s allegations and reviewing preliminary evidence, including witness statements and CCTV footage.
Tension And Protests
The incident sparked unrest both outside the hospital and on the school premises, with the victim’s family demanding full access to CCTV recordings and a transparent investigation.
While the authorities permitted three family members to review the footage, protests continued until senior police and administrative officials intervened to de-escalate the situation. A postmortem was subsequently conducted.
Initial reports had cited ambiguity over whether the fall was accidental or intentional. However, with mounting evidence and witness accounts, police confirmed the case as suicide, leading to the arrests. All four accused have been produced in court and remanded to judicial custody.
