4-Year-Old In Hyderabad Couldn't Pay School Fee. Teacher Thrashed Him

Hyderabad: When the parents of a four-year-old nursery student in Hyderabad saw their son returning home with bruises on his back and legs on Monday, they could think of only one place where he could have got the injuries. 

His fee was yet to be paid to the private school, Krishnaveni Talent School, at south-east Hyderabad's Meerpet, and the school management had been allegedly exerting pressure on the teachers to make the child's parents -- both of them plumbers -- pay up.

The parents said they immediately went to the police.

"A case has been filed. The teacher, principal and director have been arrested. They will be produced before a court. We have also informed the education department," Meerpet senior police officer A Manmohan said.

The three accused face charges under both the Indian Penal Code and the Juvenile Justice Act.

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The child's back has long bruises that appear to be the result of being struck repeatedly with a hard object. The skin on his calf muscles has long, slightly swollen lines.
 The parents alleged that the teacher, who has been identified as Swaroopa, hit the boy multiple times with a stick for coming to the school without the fee, the police officer said.

The teacher has admitted that she had beaten up the child while the principal restrained the four-year-old from moving, child rights activist Achyutha Rao alleged. It was Achyutha Rao's non-profit Balala Hakkula Sangam that initiated the police case.

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The teacher and the principal were under pressure from the management to collect the fee, the activist said. The director has told the police that he did tell the other two to somehow take the fee from the boy's parents, but did not specifically ask them to beat up the boy, Achyutha Rao said.