Boy who attempted suicide in school dies

Ten-year-old Ajay Pramod Jadhav, who set himself afire in his classroom here on November 28, died at a private hospital in Sholapur, Maharashtra, on Sunday.

The Class IV student sustained 65 per cent burns after he doused himself with kerosene and immolated himself at Neelakantheshwar Vidya Mandir run by the Siddheshwar
Education Society here. The last rites of Ajay were performed in the afternoon at Deginal village in the Indi taluk of the district.

Bijapur district in-charge minister S K Bellubbi, senior officials of Education Department and members of Siddheshwar Education Society and hundreds of people from Deginal were present.

Bellubbi was in tears as he told reporters that the incident was unfortunate, and announced that he would get Rs 1 lakh assistance to the bereaved family from the chief minister’s relief fund. He said he would also talk to elected representatives of the district and ensure that the family got a bigger financial help.

On Saturday, Babaleshwar MLA M B Patil sent  Rs 50,000 to Ajay’s parents for medical expenses and offered to take the boy to a Bangalore hospital for treatment.

On Saturday night, Ajay had reportedly told Vanita Torvi and Edward Thomas, members of the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, who visited him at the hospital that he had attempted suicide on his own and no one else was responsible for it.

He claimed that none of the teachers had threatened him with punishment as was being said. Officials from the departments of education, and women and child development accompanied the Commission members.

In a statement  to the APMC police here on Wednesday, Ajay said he was scared that his teachers would punish him for not doing home work. As he had not completed his home work on Wednesday, he carried a bottle of kerosene to the school and immolated himslef. His shocked parents, Pushpa and Pramod, have however, not registered a police case.

 The school staff had maintained that the boy attempted suicide as he was upset with his parents, who had forcibly sent him to a residential coaching centre in Talikoti before he was admitted to the Bijapur school.