Kendrapada: A Plus II girl student of Pattamundai College in Odisha’s Kendrapada district allegedly died by suicide after she was frisked “inappropriately” by a male teacher before entering the examination hall.
The matter came to the fore on Saturday after the grieving mother lodged a formal complaint with Pattamundai Rural Police.
According to the complaint, the invigilator took the student to a common room on the pretext of checking for malpractice on February 19 while she was appearing ongoing exams conducted by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) and allegedly touched her inappropriately.
When the girl resisted, the teacher allegedly threatened to expel her and warned her against disclosing the incident to anyone. Visibly shaken, she returned to the examination hall after 10 minutes but was unable to concentrate on writing the paper.
Upon reaching home, she narrated the ordeal to her mother, who then reported the matter to the college authorities. Though they assured to address the issue after completion of the exams, the girl was found hanging in the house on February 24.
The complainant said she was upset over the harassment.
While police had initially registered an unnatural death case, they intensified the investigation after getting the written complaint from the mother of the deceased and collected CCTV footage from the college to verify the allegations.
Pattamundai police station IIC Dheeraj Lenka said that she was frisked by men instead of female teachers, which is against the guidelines of the education board. “The footage is being examined as part of the ongoing probe. If evidence is found, legal action will be initiated against the accused,” he added.
The college authorities, however, denied the allegation.
“Girl students are frisked by female staffers before they are allowed to enter exam halls. The allegation that a male teacher inappropriately frisked a student is not true,” Pattamundai College Principal Dilip Kumar Bhuyan told PTI.
