A fight for justice for over two years for Piya Choudhary, who lost the vision in her left eye after being thrashed by a teacher, seems to be over as the school in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district has finally accepted guilt and agreed to pay Rs 15 lakh as compensation to her family.
The seven-year-old, a class 1 student then, was beaten up by a teacher at Tagore Public School in July 2010 for not doing her homework. The teacher had beaten Piya with a notebook which hit her left eye, causing severe damage and loss of sight in that eye.
On denial mode
Piya’s mother Sonu had been waging a running battle to get justice for her daughter even while she was getting her treated at various eye hospitals, including the All India Medical Institute of Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi.
The school had been denying any wrongdoing.
However, the school administration has finally agreed to pay Rs 15 lakh as compensation. It also tendered an apology to the girl.
With this, Piya’s mother has decided to withdraw the case against the school.
“The school administration tendered an apology and has agreed to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh,” said A K Jain, counsel for the petitioner in an affidavit filed in the Rajasthan High Court.
Piya’s mother said she was satisfied to know that the school has finally accepted its mistake.
For the last two years the school administration was in a denial mode, she said.
Looking for help
The family had already spent more than Rs 15 lakh on Piya’s treatment and was looking for some way to help her regain her eyesight, said an emotional Sonu, who is now with her daughter at AIIMS.
“Doctors are not sure if they would be able to get Piya’s vision back, but my duty is to try our level best,” Sonu said.
“Doctors say that she has severe blood clots which have become tumours in the left part of the brain and these need to be operated,” she added.
She said Piya had quit her studies after the incident. Now, the only aim of the family is to enable her to start studies again.