In a shocking case of corporal punishment, an 11-year-old boy suffered facial paralysis after his art teacher of his school allegedly beat him up for not completing a drawing assignment.
The alleged incident took place at Shri Chhatrapatil Shivaji Maharaj Preparatory Military School (SSPMS) located at Shivajinagar area. Based on the complaint of the boy's parents, the Shivajinagar police have registered a case against art teacher identified as Sandeep Gade.
The boy studies in Class VI in the residential school while his parents stay in Indapur tehsil of Pune district. According to the father of the boy who is a farmer, the alleged incident took place between October 15 and October 25.
"My wife and I came to the school on November 3 to take our son as his Diwali vacations had started. When we saw him, we found some abnormalities to the left of his face. However, we did not take it seriously and took him home," the boy's father told DNA.
The parents then started noticing the abnormalities on his face more prominently as days passed. "He started covering left side of his face with hand and that time we realised the seriousness. When we asked him what happened to his face, he told us that his art teacher had slapped him on face and he had even banged my son's head on the wooden bench for not completing the drawing assignment," the father said.
After realising the seriousness of the issue, the boy's family took him to a hospital in Baramati town where doctor told them that the boy has suffered facial paralysis.
The parents arrived in the Pune city and they raised the complaint with the school authorities before approaching the police.
When DNA contacted principal of the school SS Patil, she said, "The parents approached us today and gave complaint against the teacher. Soon after we received their complaints, we suspended him with immediate effect. We will be also forming a committee to conduct an inquiry into the complaint."
Meanwhile, the police have registered a complaint against Gade on Monday evening. Senior police officer of Shivajinagar police station stated that a case of voluntarily causing grievous hurt under section 325 of Indian Penal Code has been registered against Gade.