Raiganj, May 27: Prosenjit Ghosh has been lying in bed nursing a ruptured eardrum for the past two weeks.

But a classroom full of witnesses and even a doctor?s diagnosis vindicating the injury have not been enough for the authorities of Dwarikaprasad High School to take action against the teacher at fault.

Instead, Prosenjit?s mother Pushpa alleged, ?the school is creating pressure on us to withdraw the police complaint we had lodged against the teacher. The police have not taken any action either?.

Friends of Prosenjit, a Class VIII student, said he had been hauled up by the mathematics teacher on May 12 for not doing his homework.

?Four others and I had not done our maths home work on that day. As punishment, the teacher asked us to kneel down in front of the blackboard,? said Prosenjit, who is also suffering from balance problems because of the injury. The teacher then worked out a few problems on the blackboard and asked the students to copy them in their notebooks.

?As I could not copy the sums from the board fast enough, Sir beat me up with a lathi. When I cried out in pain, he slapped me so hard that I almost fainted,? Prosenjit said.

?I just about managed to reach home that day. My head reels all the time and I hear strange noises in my ear. I even have difficulty sitting or standing,? he said.

Pushpa said she had brought the matter to the notice of the headmaster the very next day and that the school authorities had then consulted an ENT specialist.

Headmaster Sushil Goswami said: ?Any kind of corporal punishment is banned in the school as per the directive of the school board. We follow the directive strictly in our school. I spoke to the boy?s parents, the students of the class and the teacher concerned and I feel the charges are false,? he added. ?We got Prosenjit checked by an ENT specialist. I don?t understand why his parents lodged a complaint with the police and why they are not willing to withdraw the same.?

The specialist who checked Prosenjit?s condition, Shekhar Banerjee, said the boy?s eardrum had been ruptured. ?He is under close observation. There is no reason to be worried,? he said.

The Chhatra Parishad today demonstrated in front of the police station, demanding that disciplinary action be taken against the teacher.

Chhatra Parishad district president Tushar Kanti Guha, on his part, threatened to organise a strike in Raiganj if the teacher was not punished immediately.

The students? union also held a demonstration outside the school and the police station demanding punishment for the teacher for the ?barbaric attack on the student?.

District superintendent of police Asoke Kumar Dutta said he would talk to the in-charge of the Raiganj police station to know what exactly had happened.

Though the teacher was in school, the authorities prevented this reporter from talking to him. No one in Raiganj police station was available for comment.