5-6-2008 Kolkata:
Kolkata: A 63-year old principal of a primary school committed suicide in Garia in South Kolkata on Tuesday morning after he allegedly caught red-handed while molesting a seven-year old girl student by her mother.
Biswanath Das, the owner of Children's Academy School, had been running the educational center for over 20 years. Das used to live in the second floor of the double-storied building, which housed the primary school on the ground and first floors. Many local people used to send their children to the school, as it claimed to put "special emphasis" on English language.
Among many of these children attending Children's Academy was little Shipra Ghosh (name changed), a student of class 2, who went to the school to receive education, but remained at the receiving end of the principal's indecent acts.
Das had been molesting Shipra for the past few months, and also threatened to beat her up if she dared gave anyone an inkling of what was happening. A scared Shipra used to silently bear the physical and mental abuse which she was subjected to, before finally, her mother caught the principal in the act.
On Monday, when Shipra's mother went to fetch her from school, she was surprised to find that her daughter was neither in the classroom, nor with the other children. Worried, she went inside the school to look for her daughter, and was stunned to see her alone with the principal in the staff room, with the old man behaving indecently with the little girl.
On confrontation, Das said that he was affectionately caressing the child, and that her mother was reading too much into the matter. However, Shipra's mother refused to buy his explanations, and registered a molestation complaint against him in Regent Park police station in South Kolkata.
Today morning, Das went to Shipra's house, and tried to convince her parents to hush up the matter. But they refused to relent. On returning to the school, Das found a huge mob waiting for him. Fearing that he might be beaten to death by the agitated mob, Das sneaked into his house and hanged himself.
Even after his suicide, angry locals refused to let his body be taken for a post-mortem, and created a huge ruckus in the area. Police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the mob, and finally managed to take the body four hours after Das' suicide.
Shipra's mother said, "He had been molesting my child over the past few months, but we were unaware of his deeds. I caught him red-handed yesterday, but he tried to cover up for his faults. He even tried to shut us up, but we did not give in to his pressures. Soon after he had left our place today morning, we heard that he had committed suicide."
SP (South 24 Parganas) Praveen Kumar said, "Primarily we believe that Das committed suicide to save his face. We are investigating into the matter." ..more.. by LOCAL CORRESPONDENT
No comments:
Post a Comment