Jharkhand teacher thrashes Class VI students for not dancing properly, arrested

RANCHI:  A teacher has been arrested in Jharkhand for beating up Class VI students with wooden canes after locking them inside a classroom for not dancing properly. Thirteen students of Saint Michael’s English Medium School in Gumla, who were thrashed by their teacher, Vikas Tiril Ekka, had to be admitted to the local community health centre. They were discharged after first-aid.

Ekka was arrested on Thursday evening after the parents and other local residents staged a protest. The parents said that they approached the school principal, but no action was taken against the teacher. The injured students said the incident took place on Wednesday, when Ekka got annoyed with them for not dancing properly during the preparations for a cultural programme.

“While he was beating us, the teacher broke four canes but he did not stop. He kept on slapping and punching us till he got exhausted,” the children said in a written complaint sub-mitted to the block development officer (BDO).“The BDO submitted a report in this regard on the basis of which the Deputy Commissioner (DC) recommended lawful action against the teacher. An FIR was then lodged against him,” Gumla Superintendent of Police Ehtesham Waquarib said.

“The accused teacher has been sent to jail,” said Ashutosh Kumar Singh, the officer in charge of Chainpur police station. According to Singh, the students were beaten up for not dancing properly which led to the cancellation of the cultural programme that was scheduled to be organised on Thursday. “Prima facie, it appears that the children were assaulted brutally by wooden canes,” he added.

“All the 13 children are aged around 14 years. The injured students include hostel residents,” Singh said. The school principal too said that Ekka beat up the students in anger after the programme got cancelled.