An Uttar Pradesh school teacher was arrested on Thursday, 15 days after he allegedly beat a Dalit boy to death in Auraiya district for making a spelling mistake, reported NDTV.
On September 7, Class 10 student Nikhit Dohre was beaten up by an upper caste teacher Ashwini Singh. The teacher thrashed the boy with a stick and a rod and kicked him till he fell unconscious. Dohre had misspelt the word “social” in an exam, his father had said in his complaint to the police.
Nikhit, aged 15, succumbed to his injuries on Monday.
Police official Charu Nigam said that Singh was arrested based on inputs from an informer who lives near his relative’s home. The police had been looking for Singh for a week as he was absconding.
In his complaint, the boy’s father claimed that the teacher had promised to pay for his son’s treatment but only gave Rs 40,000 in two installments, reported The Indian Express. The father also claimed that the teacher used casteist slurs when he demanded the money.
The teacher has been booked under Sections 308 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code as well as under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Auraiya Circle Officer Mahendra Pratap Singh said that in preliminary inquiry, the police had found the boy was suffering from a kidney ailment and was undergoing treatment at a Lucknow hospital. The family, however, has denied that the boy suffered from any such ailment.
Additional Superintendent of Police Shishya Pal told ThePrint that the autopsy report ruled out any external or internal injuries and stated that he died of septicaemia, an infection that occurs when bacteria enter the bloodstream and spread.
Septicaemia can lead to sepsis, which can result in organ damage or even death.
“I am yet to see the papers [autopsy report] but this is what has come to the fore so far,” Pal added.
However, local media outlets published photos of purported injuries on the boy’s back, according to ThePrint. When asked about the images, Dohre’s father claimed they were of his son.
A video shared by the boy’s family and shot hours after the alleged assault, shows him lying on a stretcher. His eyes appear puffed, and the boy is barely conscious, according to NDTV.
Soon after the boy’s death, violent protests had erupted in the area. The protestors set two police vehicles on fire and damaged at least two private cars. The police had filed first information report against 35 persons and around 2,500 others for being involved in the violent protests.
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