Patna, Feb. 25: An eight-year-old’s plea to her social studies teacher to get her seat vacated in her classroom earned her caning.

Sona Kumari, a Class III student of Christ Church School at Bankipur, went home with scars on her body, spotted by her mother late in the night. She kept the incident, which occurred around 12noon yesterday, under wraps till late evening.

Her mother, Soni Devi, in course of giving her an oil massage, noticed the marks on her body. The mother then learnt about the incident.

The family lodged an FIR at the Gandhi Maidan police station against Pooja, the teacher, this morning. Acting swiftly, the school management dismissed Pooja.

The school authorities, however, said Pooja thrashed Sona after she allegedly called her names.

Sona’s father, Sudhir Kumar, is a cashier with the Canara Bank and the family lives in the Daldali Road area under the Gandhi Maidan police station.

Soni told The Telegraph she got the “shock of her life” when she saw the marks of thrashing on her daughter’s body last night.

“The whole thing happened in the fifth period, around 12noon. They have six periods everyday and the school closes by 1pm. Sona never told me about the incident when I came to pick her up from the school,” Soni said.

“It was around 9 last night and Sona was going off to sleep. Every night I give her a light oil massage. When I started the same yesterday, I noticed the scars on her body. I was shell-shocked. She told me everything after I quizzed her. I couldn’t sleep last night and we lodged an FIR this morning,” she said.

Sona said a classmate of hers was sitting in her seat. When she told the teacher to shift her classmate, she (Sona) was beaten up.

“I don’t know why she beat me up like that. She slapped me and then caned me. It went on for a long time. When I said I would tell my mother about the thrashing, she caught hold of my jaws and said ‘you would be beaten up more severely if you dare to do that’. I got frightened and chose to keep quiet. But my mother came to know about it before I slept last night,” she said.

The school authorities, however, had a different version of the whole thing.

“Yes, Sona was beaten up. The teacher concerned shouldn’t have done it and she has been fired. But the girl had not done her homework and the teacher asked her to complete it. The teacher told her she would not be allowed to go home if she did not complete her task. After this, the girl told some of her classmates that the teacher was very stubborn. She called her names too. The students, in turn, told the teacher about it and that made her very angry. But the rules regarding corporal punishment are there in place and the student should not have been beaten up that way,” said the principal of the school, Anand Shukla.

A similar incident had occurred on January 21 when 14-year-old Swapnil Saurabh, a Class VII student of Delhi Modern High School, was allegedly slapped repeatedly and hit on the head by a teacher.

An FIR in that case was lodged at the Patrakar Nagar police station.