“We have arrested Sister Sebastian, principal of the St Marys’ Higher Secondary School on Sunday under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC in connection with the suicide,” the police said. (Representational Image)
Police on Sunday arrested Sister Rency Sebastian, principal of St Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Naharkatiya, about 470 km from Guwahati, under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC, following the suicide of a Class VII girl student of the school five days ago.
“We have arrested Sister Sebastian, principal of the St Marys’ Higher Secondary School on Sunday under Sections 306 and 34 of the IPC in connection with the suicide of Namrata Sharma, a Class VII student of her school. She (Sister Rency) was located in Tinsukia and brought to Dibrugarh for production before a magistrate,” Dibrugarh SP Gautam Bora told The Indian Express over the telephone.
Section 306 of the IPC relates to abetment of suicide and a person held guilty under this Section is liable to be punished with imprisonment up to ten years. Section 34 of the IPC on the other hand relates to a criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention.
SP Bora said while Namrata Sharma, a Class VII student of the school had gone missing on Tuesday afternoon after she had left school, her body was found floating in the Burhidehing river two days later. A suicide note she left behind said she decided to take her life after being assaulted by the principal and physically and mentally humiliated in front of other students in the school on Tuesday. Her abandoned school bag along with the ‘suicide note’ was found on the Gabharu Bridge on the Burhidehing at Sasoni, a village near Naharkatiya from where she hailed.
Naharkatiya police station officer in-charge Prasanta Borah on the other hand said Namrata was beaten up by the Principal, and that too in front of other students, on Tuesday on allegations that she had scribbled some allegedly adverse remarks about a teacher. “What we have gathered is that she was physically assaulted and also humiliated in front of other students of her class by the Principal. While she hurt her eye during the physical assault by the Principal, another teacher humiliated her one period later, which probably prompted her to take such a drastic step,” Borah said over the telephone.
“My lovely mother and my father I love u very much. Please don’t be angry with me. Aji moi tiffin nai khua, akal eta guava (I have not eaten tiffin today, only one guava). Sr Rancy is very bad. She self me before all my friends,” the suicide note left behind by the 13-year old girl said. She had definitely tried to mean “slapped” by the word “self”, Borah said. Namrata, who was good at studies as well as at music and dance, was reportedly first reprimanded by the principal for allegedly writing some “objectionable” comments about a particular lady teacher of the school.
Established in 1958 as St Mary’s Convent, it is presently a higher secondary school affiliated to the Secondary Education Board, Assam. One of the oldest institutions set up by the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (MSMHC), it is under the administrative control of Sacred Heart Province, Tinsukia, which in turn is part of the Diocese of Dibrugarh.
