After a man had lodged several complaints against a private school principal for charging high fee and forcing parents to buy books from a particular shop, the latter retaliated by punishing and beating his son for past several months. After the father of the child got to know about the same, he sent complaints to the Chief Minister, Education Minister, District Child Protection Officer and District Education Officer (DEO), following which a case was registered against the suspect.
The suspect was identified as Samuel, principal of St Thomas Senior Secondary School, Brown Road, Ludhiana.
The complainant Bharat Bhushan, a resident of Field Ganj, told the police that his seven-year-old-son studies in Class II in the school. The school was not adhering to directives of the Education Department. Fee was being increased against the norms and parents were forced to buy books from a particular shop.
“Being a parent, I decided to stand against the school management and lodged complaints with the Chief Minister, Education Minister, District Child Protection Officer and the DEO. Since no action was taken for the past over one year, I filed repeated complaints. Enraged over the same, the principal warned me to withdraw the complaints or face dire consequences,” he alleged.
He alleged that when he did not bow down to the pressure, the Principal started torturing his son.
“He was not allowing my son to sit in the class. Most of the time, he forced my son to sit in an empty room for hours and sometimes at the reception without any reason. My son’s study was getting affected. I also approached the principal and urged him to mend his ways but he did not listen and continued to harass the boy. He even used to beat my son without any reason,” the complainant said.
He alleged that later, he filed a complaint on the child helpline number 1098 and also sent a written complaint to the District Child Protection Unit to seek action against the principal. The unit had recently written to the Ludhiana police and recommended action against the suspect. Acting on the recommendation, the Ludhiana police have registered a case against the principal under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The suspect is yet to be arrested by the police.
