Sumit Raj at home on Monday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, March 4: A Class XII student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bailey Road, who is appearing for his CBSE Plus-2 board exams was allegedly thrashed by a teacher of DAV, BSEB, where he had gone to write his test last Friday. So severe is the injury that the boy needs to undergo a CT-scan and consult a neuro-physician to assess the extent of damage caused.

Sumit Raj, a commerce student, said he was standing outside the gates of DAV, BSEB, around 1.45pm on March 1 — the day the Plus-2 exams got under way — exchanging thoughts on the first paper, English Core. Sumit said he had kept his satchel on the seat of a motorcycle parked across the road that cuts through the BSEB Colony in Shastri Nagar.

Sumit, who lives with his uncle in Mainpura as his parents live in Gaya, went home and consulted a local doctor, who advised him to visit a hospital. The following day (Saturday, March 2), Sumit went to the Shastri Nagar government hospital. An X-ray was done on him and doctors told him that the injuries were external and advised bed rest for three days.

Not satisfied with the treatment at the government hospital as he was feeling giddy all the time, the youth went to Mahavir Vatsalya Hospital the same day and this morning as well. Dr Sudhir Kumar Sinha, who treated him, advised him to get a CT-scan done and consult a neuro-physician.

The youth has his next paper (Business Studies) on Wednesday. The exams continue till the end of the month.

The 17-year-old youth narrated to The Telegraph the ordeal he went through.

“A teacher came out of the school and asked all students to leave the area. He said, ‘Aare bike hatao (Remove the bike).’ Since I had kept my bag on the bike, I took it and was moving away when the teacher started shouting, ‘Bike kaun hatayega, tera baap (Who will remove the bike, your father)?’ I turned back and told him, ‘Bike mera nahin hai jiska hai woh hatayega (The bike is not mine, the owner would remove it).’ At this, I was pushed and asked by the teacher what I was doing there. I said I had just taken the exam and was standing there.

“At this, the teacher, who had a thick stick with him, beat me with it on my left hand. It started bleeding. When I asked him what my fault was, he told me, ‘How dare you argue with me?’ By then some more teachers of the school and some seven to eight guards had gathered who dragged me inside the school and started thrashing me. I kept pleading with them to spare me and call my parents if I was at fault. Then one of them hit me just above my right ear and I fell on the ground. I kept asking for water as it was hot — the temperature was above 30 degrees Celsius — but no one gave me a drop to drink,” he said.

“I was taken to the principal and punched on my face by the same teacher. The principal told me, ‘You are a grown up child and study in Class XII. Now you decide whether you want to add to the tension of your parents by sharing these things with them. And don’t forget that you have to come here to write the remaining papers,’” Sumit added.

Principal of DAV, BSEB, Ramanuj Prasad denied any knowledge of the boy being beaten by the teacher inside the school or having threatened the youth.

“Children were fighting with each other outside the school and, therefore, the institution had nothing to do with it. I had seen what they were up to with their bikes and had called the police in the morning. After the exams, they started fighting with each other. I do not know what happened outside the school gate,” Prasad said.

The boy’s local guardian, Deepak Kumar — his maternal uncle with whom he stays — said Sumit does not have a bicycle or motorbike. “I lodged an FIR (61/13) with the Shastri Nagar police station the next day. I met the school principal. Several teachers were presented to help us identify the person who hit my nephew except the guilty ones. I will be visiting the state human rights commission,” Kumar said.

Sumit said he did not know the name of the teacher who thrashed him.

Chairperson of the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Nisha Jha said corporal punishment is banned in India. “If the parents come to me, I’ll take action,” Jha said. The Supreme Court has banned corporal punishment in schools in a judgment delivered in 2000.