Grieving members of Rajesh Malik’s family. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
A government college teacher in Sonepat’s Haryana was shot dead on Tuesday allegedly by a student whom he had reprimanded for harassing women.
This is the second incident where a teacher was attacked by a student in the state this year. On January 21, a class XII student of Swami Vivekananda Public School in Yamunanagar district in Haryana had shot his principal Ritu Chhabra dead during a parent-teacher meeting.
Jagmail, a second-year student of Shaheed Dalbir Singh College in Pipli village near Kharkhoda of the district, allegedly fired four times from a country-made weapon on Rajesh Malik when he was collecting an attendance register. The incident happened minutes after Malik arrived on the campus with his daughter and a relative, police said.
Sonipat SP Satendra Kumar Gupta, said: “The accused has been identified and we have launched a manhunt…Preliminary investigations suggest that the assailant had some personal animosity with his teacher for the
past few days. Further investigations are on.” According to the police, Malik had warned Jagmail several times for harassing women.
Malik’s cousin Jyoti Dahiya, who works as a clerk in the college and is an eyewitness to the incident, told The Indian Express: “There were several complaint against Jagmail. He used to harass women, so Rajesh had warned him and also asked his parents to meet the school administration. He was suspended by the college administration due to this.”
Jagmail’s family members, however, claimed they were not aware of any confrontation he might have had with his teachers. “We don’t know what was going on his mind. He was not going to college as he was unwell for last two months. He started attending college since last week,” Jagmail’s uncle, Sandeep Kumar said. “As per routine, he (Jagmail) left home around 9am (on Tuesday) to meet his friends. He never discussed anything about having any confrontation with any teachers,” he said. The police have also questioned Jagmail’s father on Tuesday afternoon.