The school remained shut today.
Parents of the 15-year-old boy who killed himself in Ekbalpore, Kolkata yesterday have accused two of his school teachers of abetting his suicide. The school remained shut today in the wake of the tragedy. The police are now trying to track down the two teachers.
Sunil Gupta, a class 9 student of Jawaharlal Nehru Vidyapith, was sent back from school on Saturday with a 'guardian call': a guardian was asked to come and meet school authorities on Monday. But Sunil's parents were out of town.
When they heard about the guardian call, his mother Umraon Gupta called the teacher in charge, Shakti Pal and explained that she would meet him once he returned.
"But Mr Pal kept saying you keep your son at home, he is not studying. He is creating trouble at school all the time," said Mrs Gupta, the inconsolable mother.
"I said he is just a child, please bear with him at least till I return. But Mr Pal was unrelenting," she says.
When Sunil went to school on Monday, he was sent back. On Tuesday, he asked to get his guardian again.
His parents were not back yet, so Sunil got his older brother, 22-year-old Anil, a former student of the same school. But the teachers allegedly refused to meet him as he was wearing shorts.
"The teachers refused to meet me and made humiliating remarks about my clothes," said Anil. "Sunil was very upset. I said I would go meet the teachers next day in proper clothes. But by then, he had died."
Locals who live near the school, however, claim that while leaving the school on Tuesday, Anil started beating Sunil. "That must have been humiliating for the boy, to be beaten in public," said Mohammad Wasim.
Urmilla Chowdhury, a former teacher, says, "The teachers named in the FIR -- Shakti Pal and Sheikh Ibrahim -- are very well liked. I don't believe they are to blame for the boy's death. Like with many other students, Sunil was also asked to get his parents. Did the teachers do anything wrong?"
But Anil denies such claims, saying, "We never fought".
"Because he was upset, I went to get his favourite Chinese food for him. By the time I came back, it was too late," he says.