JOIN USTeacher sought laptop from student
The court was hearing the anticipatory bail petition filed by Sanjay Smart, a teacher of Kolkata’s prestigious La Martiniere School and member of the school’s students assessment committee. Smart was accused of sending an SMS from his mobile phone to Partha P Banerjee, father of a Class IV student of the school, a few months back, asking him for a laptop if he wanted his son to be promoted to Class V.
Banerjee, shocked on the receipt of the SMS, declined to oblige Smart. The teacher then took to bargaining. Banerjee later lodged an FIR with the city police and registered a written complaint with the school's higher authorities. Police filed a non-bailable case of extortion against Smart, punishable under Section 384 of the IPC.
In his anticipatory bail, Smart's lawyer maintained that since the student fared badly in his studies, his parents had been pleading with the teacher concerned for promoting their son. The parents later tried to trap the teacher by offering him a desktop PC and lodged a false complaint.
However, the counsel for Banerjee counter-argued that the text messages originating from Smart's mobile only.
showed his greed for laptop, which he subsequently watered down to a desktop.
A two-judge bench of the court headed by Justice Amit Talukdar concluded hearing of the petition and a verdict is expected soon in the case.