Ritu Kumari and her father at MGM Medical College and Hospital on Saturday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta

Jamshedpur, July 19: The rod, er cane, seems to be ruling the roost at schools in and around the steel city.

A day after some 50 furious parents protested against the caning of 20 girl students by the principal of a government high school, a fresh corporal punishment case cropped up near Jamshedpur.

Parents of a nine-year-old student of Norman Convent School, a private English medium cradle that provides education on ICSE pattern till Class VII at Govindpur, around 12km from the city, today lodged a complaint with police, saying that two teachers had caned their daughter yesterday.

Ritu Kumari, a student of Class III, had to admitted to MGM Medical College and Hospital for three hours for treatment.

According to the complaint that was filed at Parsudih police station, science teacher Nisha Kumari and class teacher Mukta Pradhan had caned the girl as she failed to tell the meanings of two words.

“My wife saw my daughter crying at school when she went to fetch her last afternoon. She initially didn’t say what had happened. But after coming back, when my wife mounted pressure on her, she said that the two teachers had caned her for failing to tell the meanings of geyser and fountain during science class. There were bruises on her hands and back and she was suffering from excruciating pain,” said the girl’s father Subodh Kumar Gupta, a resident of Gadra, nearly 14km from Jamshedpur.

When the pain refused to subside, the couple took Ritu to MGM Medical College and Hospital around 11pm yesterday. But as there was no senior doctor, they came back and again took her to the hospital this morning. The girl was treated for over three hours before being released.

Gupta, a contractual worker at a small-scale industrial unit at Gadra, further alleged that the school’s principal, who is a contractor, had sent some men to warn him that the family would face dire consequences if they approached police.

Parsudih officer-in-charge Dayanand Kumar said they would soon take action against the school authorities.

East Singhbhum district superintendent of education Indu Bhusan Singh also promised action. “I have already issued a showcause notice to the school’s principal, seeking a reply within a week,” he said.

School principal Bharat Singh Yadav refused to attend calls on his mobile phone despite several attempts.

In the other case, East Singhbhum district education officer (DEO) Mukesh Kumar Sinha has transferred the principal of Harijan Uchha Vidyalaya, Bhalubasa, Abdul Majid, who had allegedly caned 20 Class IX girls on Thursday, to Tiruldih High School, nearly 13km from Jamshedpur.

The DEO has also constituted a committee to probe into the allegations of corporal punishment at Harijan Uchha Vidyalaya.

Around 50 parents had protested at the Bhalubasa school yesterday, seeking the principal’s removal.

According to them headmaster Abdul Majid lost his cool when he saw the girls in the corridor during recess and beat them up with a cane.

One of them, Priyanka Dey fainted on reaching her home at Nandnagar in Bhuiyandih and was rushed to MGM Medical College and Hospital in Sakchi where she was given saline before being released.