Two cases of corporal punishment faced by nine-year-olds belatedly come to light in Karnataka

Two nine-year-old boys in different parts of Karnataka — one in Bengaluru and the other in Chitradurga — were allegedly subjected to corporal punishment incidents that have belatedly come to light.

In Chitradurga district, the student of a residential school run by Sri Guru Tipperudraswamy Temple at Naykanahatti in Challakere taluk faced brutal assault a few months ago by his teacher for calling up home without informing the teacher. In the video clip, the teacher is seen kicking the student again and again, even as the boy is seen apologising repeatedly.

The Sanskrit teacher, T. Veeresh, had been absconding after a video clip showing him assaulting the student went viral over the last two days. The Chitradurga police, on Tuesday, arrested the teacher from Kalaburagi, based on the complaint filed by H. Gangadharappa, executive officer of the temple. T. Venkatesh, Deputy Commissioner, has also served a notice on the executive officer of the temple seeking reply for not informing the senior officers about the incident.

To ‘discipline’

In the Bengaluru incident, the Class 5 student of a private school at Sunkadakatte in Bengaluru was allegedly assaulted by the principal and teachers with a PVC pipe, and locked up in a room for being absent for two days.

The alleged incident occurred on October 14. A complaint was filed by Divya Shankar, mother of the boy, the next day, following which an FIR was registered against the principal and two teachers.

According to the complaint, the victim has been a student of St. Mary’s public school for the past three years.

The accused — principal Rakesh Kumar, teacher Chandrika and Vijay Kumar, secretary of the school and a teacher — were allegedly upset about the victim being absent for two days and assaulted him for “disciplining” him. The accused also allegedly locked the student alone in a room for several hours.

The parents noticed the boy’s bruises and learnt about the incident after an inquiry.

When questioned, the school management allegedly justified their act stating it was aimed at disciplining. The police have issued notices to the accused to appear before them for questioning.