School principal held for girl’s suicide

Dibrugarh: The woman principal of a missionary school in Assam was today arrested on the charge of abatement to suicide by a girl student of her school at Naharkatia in Tinsukia district.

Superintendent of Police Gautam Bora said the school principal was arrested from Tinsukia civil hospital where she was undergoing medical treatment.

She was produced before the judicial magistrate’s court which has sent her to judicial custody.

On the basis of the statements of the deceased girl’s fellow students, it was established that the principal had reprimanded and beaten up the girl before she committed suicide on the same day, Bora said.

The 13-year old girl had committed suicide on August 29 by jumping from Gobharu bridge into river Buri Dihing, about 10 km from her school and 3 km from her home at Sasoni Amguri village, the SP said.

In her ‘suicide note’, the girl said the principal “slapped me before all my friends”, her father Putul Sarmah said.

However, some parents of her classmates claimed the deceased girl had written on her desk some “objectionable” words about a lady teacher following which she was punished by the principal

—PTI