The broken windowpanes of SUMI. (Chinlop Fudong Lepcha)

Kalimpong, March 28: A section of HS candidates vandalised the exam centre here today. Their grouse against Scottish Universities’ Mission Institution (SUMI), one of the three centres for boys in the subdivision, was that the invigilators would not let them engage in malpractice in the exam hall.

According to the invigilators, soon after the exam was over, some boys went to the back of the school and started hurling stones at the building. Windowpanes of classrooms and the prayer hall were broken. The teachers alleged that a handful of policemen on duty remained mute spectators as the students went on the rampage. “The students also hurled filthy words at us,” said Bipin Syangden, a teacher of SUMI.

Even after the incident, the students allegedly approached the principal, Nava Ratna Pradhan, and urged him to let them copy at least in the last one hour of the remaining exams.

“There will be no change in our approach. We will continue to be strict with errant students for the remaining papers as well,” said Pradhan. The principal added that he had told 286 students attending today’s exams that no sort of malpractice would be allowed at the exam centre.

Some students had yesterday put up posters articulating the demand.

P.T. Sherpa, the subdivisional officer of Kalimpong, said action would be taken if the teachers filed a complaint.

Girl kills self

An 18-year old girl appearing for the ongoing Higher Secondary examination committed suicide by hanging after she and her boyfriend were slapped by her father.

Yanki Doma Bhutia, science student of Kalimpong Girls High School, was spotted with the boyfriend at her house in Middle Gumbahatta here today by her father Tshering Bhutia.

After a while, when Bhutia went out of the house, Yanki scribbled a suicide note and hanged herself from the doorframe on the terrace, said the neighbours.

In the suicide note, she sought forgiveness from the parents and expressed her love for the boyfriend.

Police said preliminary investigation suggested that it was a case of suicide. “We have registered a case of unnatural death,” said Puran Subba, the inspector in-charge of Kalimpong police station.

The shocked and distraught parents of the girl were in no position to talk.