An email complaint by the boy’s mother to the school authorities alleging that her son had been sexually abused and bullied and was having ‘suicidal’ tendencies; a handwritten note allegedly by the victim mentioning sexual assault by some students; and phone call recordings of the boy discussing the alleged assault with friends – these are some of the crucial pieces of evidence in the chargesheet filed by Faridabad police against the academic headmistress and the principal of a prominent school in the case of suicide of a class 10 student in February this year.
Faridabad police filed a chargesheet against the two accused earlier this month before a district court. The academic headmistress has been charged under IPC section 306 (abetment of suicide), and section 21 (punishment for failure to report or record a case) of POCSO Act, and the principal under section 21 of the POCSO Act. Three former schoolmates of the victim, who are also accused in the case, are yet to be chargesheeted.
Police have listed 36 witnesses in the chargesheet.
The 16-year-old committed suicide on February 24, 2022, with his mother – a teacher at the same school – alleging that he was harassed over his sexuality and the school ignored her complaint. In the FIR, the boy’s mother had said that one year before the incident, her son had confided in her that some boys in school harassed him and called him gay.
In a purported suicide note, recovered by the police, the boy had stated, “This school has killed me. Specially higher authorities…”
Police said the statements and evidence collected by the SIT, during its probe, suggest that the school principal did not inform the local police about sexual harassment allegations levelled against some school students by the boy’s mother in an email to the authorities dated September 23, 2021 – over five months before the incident. This, the chargesheet states, is a crime punishable under section 21 of POCSO Act.
Police said the special investigation team (SIT) sought the details of communication between the complainant and school authorities, and it was found that in an email to the principal on September 23, 2021, the boy’s mother had accused three of her son’s schoolmates of “sexually abusing” him, while five other schoolmates were alleged to have had “bullied verbally and harassed him” by her. On these five students, the chargesheet states that the probe did not find them to “have behaved with any sexual intent” and that they simply made fun of each other.
“Because of the abuse done by these students to my son, he has lost its mental composure, he is having suicidal tendencies,” read the mother’s email to the school. The mother had mentioned in the email that after morning sports practice and during lunch breaks, her son was sexually assaulted by the students on school premises.
Police said on October 25, 2021 – a month later – the school principal replied to the complainant stating: “… all five students named by you in your mail have departed from school and are no longer on its rolls. Of the four students mentioned in context of verbal abuse, the school is not in receipt of any complaint against them in the past from your end or any other quarter. The same notwithstanding, consequent to your mail… highlighting your concern in a communication to school for the first time, we have made immediate and concerted efforts to pursue the matter by speaking… to the said four students in presence of their parents. They have vehemently denied their involvement in any such act and expressed shock at the possibility of any association with such behaviour.”
The principal, in the email, further stated, “The alleged incident as stated by you carries no specific particulars or evidence. Yet a strong message of positive respect for every student has been reiterated by school with all of them in presence of their parents…”
Days after the incident was reported, police had formed an SIT to investigate the case. In the chargesheet, police said that a week before the incident, the boy told a friend over the phone that during an exam, the headmistress was “repeatedly torturing and putting pressure on him”.
On February 21, during another exam, the headmistress troubled him by putting pressure on him in the middle of the exam, he told his friend, the chargesheet states, adding: “As a result, due to the mental torture suffered, he became so scared that he started having panic attacks and had to seek medical treatment and the boy ended his life…”
In the chargesheet, police also said that 10 call recordings from the victim’s phone were submitted by the complainant and sent for forensic analysis. Police said that as per the transcripts of three phone calls of the victim with his friends in October 2021, November 2021 and February 2022, the boy mentioned that he was allegedly sexually harassed by some students at school and the students had tried to rape him in the school washroom when he was in class 8.
