Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate Police on Wednesday foiled a suicide attempt by a Matric student and his mother near the official residence of School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash.
Sources said that the mother and son had staged a dharna near Capital High School on Tuesday after the student was deprived of filling up the form for Matric offline improvement examination.
The mother-son duo then went residence of the minister to protest against the high-handedness of the school authorities. When they could not meet him, they tried to immolate themselves by pouring kerosene on their body. However, the police present at the spot foiled their attempt.
They were later taken to Capital High School for counselling.
The aggrieved mother told the media that her son had filled up the form at the school on July 5. “When he went to collect the admit card yesterday, the school authorities refused to acknowledge that he had filled up the form. This is a blatant lie,” she said.
They then decided to go to the minister with their grievances. “Having failed to get an audience with the minister, we decided to take the extreme step,” she added.