Dibrugarh, June 12: Nine students had to be hospitalised after the headmaster of a school in an Assam village allegedly beat them up in an inebriated state today. He has been absconding since.

Local sources said Chandreswar Miri Baruah, the headmaster of Gurudev Middle English School at Bordeori village under Bihpuria police station in Lakhimpur district, beat up several students of Class VI around noon after they allegedly failed to reply to some of his questions.

One of the students said, “The teacher who was supposed to take our class was not present and we were just sitting in class talking when our headmaster suddenly entered and started asking questions. When we could not answer, he started beating all of us with a big stick. As the students cried out in pain, teachers came out from other classes and took him away.”

The student alleged that Baruah could hardly stand and also used abusive language as he beat up them up indiscriminately.

The injured students were admitted to Narayanpur primary health centre, a source said. They were released late this afternoon.

Since the children are from a very backward village, their parents did not lodge any complaint either at the school or at the nearest Narayanpur police outpost, which is 2km from the school, the source added.

There have been allegations of incompetence and alcoholism during duty hours against Baruah earlier too.

Confirming this, Lakhimpur’s district elementary and education officer, Loknath Sarma, said over phone that Baruah had been suspended on two earlier occasions on various charges, including alcoholism.

“I have asked the block officer to conduct a preliminary inquiry and file a report as soon as possible. We will take stringent action against the headmaster if he is found to be guilty.”

Sarmah had reinstated Baruah after the latter submitted a written promise that he would not indulge in alcoholism and attend to his duties properly. “However, it seems that he failed to correct himself. Therefore, we will have to initiate strict action against him.”

Condemning the incident, several organisations, including the All Assam Students Union, have demanded the removal of and strict legal action against Baruah.

“This is totally unacceptable. We demand stringent action against the teacher, failing which we will launch a severe agitation,” Debojit Mazumdar, a central executive member of AASU, said.