Case registered after student beaten mercilessly, tortured for days over pen theft

BENGALURU: A third-class student was brutally harassed by his teacher over a pen theft. The shocking incident happened at an ashram in Raichur, Karnataka. The boy identified as Tarun Kumar was harassed by his teacher Venugopal and his aides and then they locked him up in a room. The police registered a case on the complaint of the boy’s parents.

The boy’s parents said that he was beaten with things including firewood and a bat. Tarun said, ‘The teacher and two others beat me. They first beat me with firewood and when it broke, they beat me with a bat. I got injuries all over my body. They later took me to the railway station in Yagdir to beg. I didn’t get any money. They beat me over a pen theft.’

His eyes are completely swollen. He is undergoing treatment in the hospital. His parents said the boy was sent to the ashram due to the family’s poor financial condition. The parents also accused the ashram authorities for beating Tarun so brutally without even investigating the truth as his classmates had told him that he had stolen the pen. The truth was revealed when the mother reached the ashram to meet her son.

Tarun’s elder brother Arun Kumar is also in the ashram. The parents came to know about the incident when they came to see the children. My son did not steal the pen. When he had no pen to write, another student took the teacher's pen and gave it to him. The teacher later recovered the pen from my son. My son was brutally beaten by the teacher. He hit my son with the bat. He has injuries all over his body. Strict action should be taken against the teacher. We have lodged a complaint,' said Tarun's mother.

Meantime, Sudarshan, a child rights activist, said the child has been rescued from the ashram and the matter was reported to the authorities of the Ministry of Child Welfare. He also stated that an FIR has been registered against the accused.