CM Siddaramaiah’s office seeks report on student being beaten with pipe

Amid the uproar over a private school teacher allegedly thrashing a student with a PVC pipe, the Chief Minister’s Office has sought a report on the incident.

Dr K Vaishnavi, officer on special duty to the CM, has written to the Principal Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy seeking a report on the incident reported at St Mary’s Public School in Sunkadakatte in Bengaluru wherein corporal punishment was administered on a student.

The CMO has tasked the department with conducting an inquiry into the incident, and subsequently take necessary action. A compliance report replete with photographs is to be submitted to the CMO.

Meanwhile, the Block Education Officer for Bengaluru North Zone-1 visited the school, and spoke to the teachers, students and representatives of the management, following which a comprehensive report was submitted to the concerned Deputy Director of Public Instruction.

“It is apparent that the principal and teachers of the school administered corporal punishment,” read the report, which, however, called for a police investigation into the incident.

A class 5 student was reportedly beaten by the principal and teachers of St Mary’s School with a PVC pipe and locked up in a room for being absent for a period of two days. The incident allegedly took place on October 14. The student’s parents subsequently filed a complaint against the principal and two teachers at the Kamakshi Palya police station. The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, meanwhile, has registered a suo motu case.