Around 100 students of Lala Lajpat Rai Senior Secondary School in Pundag, near Ranchi, protested against the self-immolation attempt by a Class XII CBSE board examinee on Monday and demanded dismissal of their principal.

Asutosh Anand (16), a native of Ara in Bihar who lived in Harmu for his studies, succumbed to 65 per cent burns on Wednesday afternoon. The teen had claimed he was unable to cope with study pressure before his untimely death.

The protesting students accused principal P. K. Thakur of not providing them enough security and also highlighted porous arrangements, which allowed Asutosh to walk into the campus, teeming with 1,400 children, armed with a bottle of petrol and a matchbox.

The 100-odd students on Friday barged into the campus around 9am, raising slogans like "School principal murdabad (Down with school principal)" and "Principal Thakur ko barkhast karo (Dismiss principal Thakur)", leading the authorities to call police from the Pundag outpost.

Over 1,000 students and around 50 teachers were present on the campus.

, only after which the situation became normal around 11.45amPrincipal had taken disciplinary actions. "There were outsiders too who had some personal scores to settle. Otherwise the family members of the deceased have no grievances against the school," said Thakur.

Officer Farooque said the students were misguided. "Primary probe does not suggest that the school was responsible. The post-mortem has been done and we are waiting for the report," he said.

A student, however, accused the police of favouring the school. "Cops threatened us... Police are not interested in finding out who is guilty of abetting Asutosh's suicide."