New Delhi: Just days after the Principal of Kolkata's La Martiniere School admitted to caning Rouvan Rowla, days before his suicide, the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has spoken out against corporal punishment.
Sibal says that the school needs to be held responsible and a closer inquiry needs to be held in the case.
"Ultimately the school must take responsibility. Due to corporal punishment, somebody can get permanent visual damage, impaired hearing, somebody should take responsibility...sometimes suicides take place, as in this particular case, I don't want to fore comment on this, because the full circumstances are yet to be established. There should be a process by which if there is a suicide in school, there should an enquiry of the circumstances of death, and in the event that anybody is found culpable, a course of action must follow," said the HRD minister.
Rouvan was caned by Chakravarthi on February 12. Four days later, he was found hanging in his room. In an interview to NDTV, La Martiniere's principal, Sunirmal Chakravarthi had admitted that he caned the boy, but said that linking the suicide to his corporal punishment is "stretching it." (
Read: Just an apology for Kolkata student Rouvan's suicide?)
On Tuesday, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) claimed that Chakravarthi allegedly admitted hitting Rouvan so hard that his cane snapped in two. The principal, however, has denied that. (
Read: Rouvan's suicide: Principal, school blamed by NCPCR |
Read: La Martiniere principal admits to caning Rouvan)