A 13-year-old boy residing in the hostel of a private school in Malda was found hanging on Wednesday night, sparking allegations from his family that he was subjected to physical abuse.

Deceased Srikanta Mandal was a student of Class VIII in the residential school located at Manichak block.

Reportedly, when the principal Md Sazir Hossain went to take a round of the hostel on Wednesday night, he found Srikanta hanging.

The boy from Kedartola village under Hiranandapur panchayat of Bhutni police station, was admitted to the school three years ago.

Srikanta’s grandfather Prabir Mandal alleged that the school authorities were responsible for the incident, but did not clarify if he meant that Srikanta had been driven to suicide or was murdered and then hung.

He said that the hostel boys had been shouting over some issue on Tuesday night and Srikanta might have been beaten up by school authorities for that.

The grandfather alleged that school authorities regularly meted out corporal punishment to the boys.

“Inhuman treatment by school authorities led to my grandson’s death,” Mandal said. “There are 44 students in the same hostel block, yet no one saw Srikanta hanging. Only the principal claims to have discovered the body,” he said, demanding a thorough inquiry into the incident.

The grandfather further claimed that Srikanta had developed a fear of returning to school after vacations.

“He seemed scared, perhaps due to the beatings by the principal and teachers,” Mandal said.

The school has 250 students of which 136 stay in the school hostel.

Principal Hossain refuted the allegation of corporal punishment. “We have never resorted to corporal punishment at this school,” he claimed.

Teacher Lakshmirani Sarkar echoed the principal, claiming they never tortured or punished the boy. Sarkar claimed Srikanta had committed suicide. “We are all shocked and clueless as to why he would take such a drastic step,” the teacher said.

Police have sent the body to Malda Medical College & Hospital for post-mortem. “We have not received any formal complaint from the Mandal family so far. They have said they will file one after the autopsy report is available,” a police officer said. “We initiated a preliminary investigation on our own as it is an unnatural death.”