Exam jitters send boy, pals on school ransack spree

HOWRAH: A Class X-student, who apparently needed more time to prepare for his mid-term exams, orchestrated the ransack of his school to delay the exams. The incident took place at Netaji Vidyayatan in Howrah’s Dasnagar early on Thursday. The student, who is good in studies, was accompanied by some of his friends in the vandalism.

The boy later confessed to the police that he was afraid of flunking the papers and needed more time to prepare and so, planned the ransack as it would definitely postpone the exams.



The school staff entered the premises on Thursday morning to find the almirahs open, several pieces of furniture damaged and broken, books and documents lying strewn on the floor, torn. They realised the miscreants were more interested in vandalism rather than looting. Everything related to the exams, including a computer where copies of the question papers might have been saved, was wrecked but the cash lockers were untouched.

“I was surprised to find that items related to the exams were the main target. The miscreants seemed to have a particular dislike for the Class-X question papers. We called the Dasnagar police station,” said school headmaster Bholanath Keshari.

The police started screening footages of CCTV cameras installed at the school. The images showed a youngster, lead some others, to the school around 3am on Thursday. The group left the area after 40-odd minutes. Cops showed the footage to the school authorities, who identified the student. On failing to find the boy at his home, the police knocked on the door of his relative, where they found him hiding. Five others were also picked up.

“The student said he had never failed. Teachers confirmed he ranked between 5th and 11th in class. He had not prepared well for mid-term exams and spoke to his friends about it. They suggested they would do something to postpone the exams,” said Rahul De, ACP (North), Howrah City Police. “The student said he would be ready to write the papers in a fortnight.”

The headmaster said, “We have expectations from him and he will certainly do well if he prepares. We will ask the authorities to go easy on him. Our teachers will help him out.”

Commissioner of Howrah City Police Tanmoy Roy Chowdhury said the teenager would undergo counselling from a psychiatrist.