Paradip:
A class nine student died allegedly due to corporal punishment by a teacher today, sparking violent protests from local people who beat up the headmaster in Keonjhar district of Orissa, police said.
Manas Sahu of Dhanurjaynarayan High School at Keonjhar was shifted to the hospital in a serious condition with blood flowing down his ear and was later declared dead by the doctors.
Claiming that the boy succumbed to the injury he had sustained due to corporal punishment by a teacher, hundreds of angry people reached the hospital and allegedly beat up the headmaster Nilamani Sahu.
However, police quoted a few of the students having said that Manas drowned in an under-construction septic tank of the girls' hostel behind the school which had over eight feet of water.
Manas, who belonged to Dhangarapada village, was staying in his maternal uncle's house at Birabarapurpatna after his father's death.
After attending the school in the morning today, he was taken to the hospital in a serious condition, the sources said.
While the teachers of the school fled the scene out of fear, the mob indulged in violence in the school. Senior police and district officials, including the Additional District Magistrate and the Additional Superintendent of Police rushed to the spot with reinforcement and rescued the headmaster.