Haryana: Boy hung upside down, beaten up at private school; principal, bus driver held

Panipat, Sep 29 (PTI) A Class 2 student was hung upside down from a window and beaten up at a private school here allegedly by a bus driver at the behest of the school principal, police said on Monday.

The two were nabbed after a video of the incident made rounds on social media.

According to the police, the boy was subjected to corporal punishment for not doing his homework. The school principal had called the bus driver to scold the child.

The driver took the boy to a room in the school and tied him upside down with a window and slapped him, they said, adding that the accused also recorded the video of the incident and later uploaded it on social media.

The incident is stated to have taken place recently, but the boy's parents came to know about it on Saturday after the video surfaced on social media.

The child then narrated the ordeal to his parents upon being asked about the incident, they said.

The parents lodged a complaint with the police alleging that their son's legs were tied with a rope and he was hung upside down from a window in the school premises and the bus driver was allegedly beating him, the police said.

While the bus driver was arrested on Sunday, the principal was apprehended today, they said.

Panipat Model Town SHO Jagminder on Monday said the incident took place recently.

On receiving a complaint, "we had registered a case in the matter and booked the school principal Reena and bus driver Ajay", he added.

Both have been arrested and were produced before a court here on Monday and remanded to police custody for two days, the SHO said.

"A case under sections 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act has been registered," he said.

The Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act) obligates authorities to protect children from abuse, cruelty, and maltreatment.

Meanwhile, when asked to comment on the incident, Haryana's Education Minister Mahipal Dhanda told reporters on Monday, "Such inhuman treatment to children by any school will not be tolerated.” “Parents send their children to a school to study and play where they are groomed into becoming able citizens. But meting out such inhuman treatment and hanging a child upside down and beating him cannot be tolerated and strict punishment should be given," he said.

"A case has been registered and the school principal and the driver have been arrested,” the minister added.

The Panipat incident comes close on the heels of another incident of corporal punishment in a school in Sonipat.

The Haryana Human Rights Commission had recently taken suo motu cognizance of a news report that an 11-year-old Class 5 girl student was allegedly subjected to "humiliating and degrading punishment for not completing her homework" at a school in Sonipat district.

The punishment reportedly included performing 50 sit-ups, cleaning the classroom floor and areas outside the UKG class and being publicly humiliated by asking the UKG students to chant "shame shame" targeting the girl.

It was also alleged that the school principal threatened to shave off the girl's hair in case of future failure to complete homework.

The commission had observed that the alleged acts fall within such cruel behavior causing mental and physical suffering, attracting penal provisions, and had directed a fair and detailed inquiry into the matter by the authorities concerned. PTI SUN NB NB