Probe Begins Into Student’s Death At School, 3-Member Inquiry Panel To Be Headed By RDO
A three-member panel will probe the death of five-year-old Pranay Tej at a Visakhapatnam school after CCTV footage showed a teacher slapping him.
A tearful adieu was given to five-year old Pranay Tej, who died in his school following a slap by a teacher a day ago, in Visakhapatnam on Friday morning.
Over 200 people from Rangareeju Street and Town Kotha Road accompanied the boy’s body while close relatives were inconsolable. The body was buried at Chavulamadham as per the community traditions.
Meanwhile, the Vizag city police registered a case of suspicious death (Section 194, BNSS) in connection with the death following a complaint from his father Tammana Krishna Prasad.
The police conducted the inquest over the body on Thursday night after which it was handed over to the family at the King George Hospital’s mortuary. The post-mortem report is awaited.
The cause of the death will be ascertained after receipt of the post-mortem report and the report from the pathology department at KGH, police said.
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As per the FIR, at about 12 noon, Krishna Prasad received a phone call from the school management to say that Pranay Teja collapsed while his teacher was reprimanding him for not completing his homework. There was no mention of the teacher's slap in the FIR.
Krishna Prasad stated in his complaint that Pranay Tej was naturally very gentle, timid, and easily frightened even by minor things. Upon reviewing the school CCTV footage, it was seen that the child collapsed and died while the teacher was scolding him, due to his highly sensitive mentality, the FIR said.
However, a video clip from a CCTV camera installed in the classroom went viral on social media on Thursday. It showed Pranay Tej was pulled close to the teacher and slapped.
The school education department has constituted a three-member committee comprising the regional joint director, district educational officer and revenue divisional officer to conduct a detailed probe.
School principal Durga Prasad said he had issued instructions to all teachers not to resort to corporal punishment, but after watching the video clip, he was surprised this happened.
