An eight-year-old Class III student of a school in Bansdroni died on Sunday, 13 days after he allegedly fell ill at school and later fell down a staircase.

Police have registered a negligence case against the school authorities following a written complaint by the boy’s family.

On May 20, while Ayush Kumar Nath was on ventilator support after suffering internal haemorrhage, his father lodged a complaint with the police. Following the child’s death, the complaint was converted into an FIR, the police said.

According to the complaint, Ayush had complained of feeling unwell around 8am on May 13. His father alleged that instead of informing the family, the class teacher made the child sit with his head down in “an unhealthy environment where there was no fan”.

“In extreme heat, his condition deteriorated rapidly. Around 11.50am, when I went to pick him up from school, my son was unconscious and his body was wet. The school authorities had not consulted any doctor and kept him confined, which was inhuman,” the father, Ashis Kumar Nath, wrote in the complaint.

Nath said that despite being unwell, Ayush was made to carry his schoolbag and later fell on the staircase.

“My son’s classroom was on the first floor and he fell down the stairs. Between 8am and 11.50am, six teachers entered the class, but none listened to his plea that he was unwell. The school authorities should have called us instead of keeping him confined in school like that,” Nath told Metro over the phone on Tuesday.

In the complaint, Nath wrote: “He got hurt on his head and suffered internal haemorrhage.”

The police said they were examining the allegations. “We have sought CCTV
footage from the school from May 13 to ascertain what happened that day,” an officer of Netaji Nagar police station said.

“We will also speak to the teachers concerned and record their statements,” the police officer said.

After taking Ayush from school on May 13, his father first took him to two local nursing homes before he was admitted to the emergency department of a hospital off EM Bypass

“He immediately went into a coma and had to be put on ventilator support,” the father of the boy stated in the complaint.

Later, because of the high cost of treatment at the private hospital, Ayush was shifted to a government hospital, where he died.

The school principal could not be reached for comment. Calls and messages sent on Tuesday went unanswered.

On Tuesday, a section of parents staged a protest outside the school over the child’s death and the alleged negligence by the authorities.