Jamshedpur: He may not have been great in academics, but seventh grader Amrit Anand was a jolly good fellow who never seemed to harbour stress, let alone a death wish.

Teachers of DAV Public School, Bistupur, remember the 13-year-old who hanged himself at his Kadma home on Monday as an extrovert student, always smiling.

"I still can't believe it!" exclaimed principal Pragya Singh and said the boy's suicide was more heartrending because he was the son of a school employee (but not teacher as reported earlier).

"Amrit's mother, Punam Singh, is our biology lab assistant. The boy often stayed back after class to leave with his mother. I watched him play from my window. He was naughty like many children his age. He would jump off benches and pelt stones at fruits. He was a happy boy," Singh said, wondering if Amrit's death were a suicide or an accident.

The boy was found hanging from the window grille at their Natraj Classic Apartment flat, his elder sister's dupatta turned into a noose, on Monday morning. He had skipped dinner the night before because his mother chided him for not studying enough during summer vacation.

Biology teacher Jaya Sharma recalled that Amrit hated nagging.

"He was an average student, but never let peer pressure get to him. But yes, he hated being nagged. He seemed to be good friends with sister Chhaya and spoke about her a lot. I had once asked him why he didn't like studying and he had mentioned he was gradually taking interest in mathematics, which was his weakest link," the teacher said.

Chhaya is a Class XII student at DBMS English School in Kadma.

Principal Singh said she knew how difficult life was for Punam, a widowed mother of two (not three as reported earlier).

"In fact, we decided to hire her as a lab assistant last year after we came to know of their financial hardships during a PTM (parent-teacher meeting) last year. She had cleared her intermediate with bioscience. The school also waived Amrit's tuition fees," she said, adding that the school would remember Amrit as "a naughty boy with a smiling face".

The principal refused to allow this newspaper to speak to any of Amrit's classmates. "They are all in shock. As their guardian in school, I don't think they should be asked questions that will make them sadder," she signed off.

DAV Public School has 4,079 students on its rolls.

How can student suicides be curbed in the state? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com