The Delhi High Court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to a woman teacher of a private school, who was accused of abetting the suicide of a girl student by passing objectionable remarks.
Justice Brijesh Sethi dismissed the bail plea of the teacher, saying the child has clearly named her in the suicide note and there are statement of witnesses which reveal that harsh and bitter words were used by her against the minor who was called "characterless".
"There can be no opposition from anyone regarding the proposition that a child of tender age should be handled very carefully and he/she needs to be protected from every kind of hurt whether physical or mental. Unfortunately, the petitioner (teacher) has failed to pay attention to this fact," the court said.
It added that such words can deeply hurt the mind of an innocent child and that is why she was compelled to take the extreme step of suicide.
The court said the woman is working as a teacher in the same school where the incident has happened and the investigation is still in progress.
"The evidence collected so far does not prima facie suggest that petitioner has no role to play in the commission of suicide by the deceased child...
More From This Section
"Thus, keeping in mind the nature of offence, statement of witnesses appearing on record and particularly, the apprehension expressed by the State about the likelihood of the witnesses being influenced and evidence being tampered with, this court is not inclined to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner. The anticipatory bail application of the petitioner is, therefore, dismissed," it said.
A complaint was lodged by the girl's mother saying that her daughter was studying in Class VII in the private school in Naraina here and the girl used to ask her to change the school.
The mother, an advocate by profession, had also been asking her daughter the reason for change of school but she had only replied that the atmosphere was not good there.
On December 3 last year, when the girl had not opened her room for long, her mother broke open the door and found her hanged from the ceiling fan. She was declared brought dead by doctors at a hospital.
A suicide note was found from the room and she had also written a message on her palm that the news of her death shall be communicated to her school.
The teacher sought anticipatory bail on the ground that she was into the profession since 2014 and till date no complaint has ever been made against her.
She claimed that to falsely implicate her, the girl's mother has concocted a false story against her and there was no occasion to instigate the child.
Some persons and children from the neighbourhood told the girl's mother that the minor was being abused and tortured by her class teacher and another subject teacher.
It was alleged that one of the teachers called the minor as characterless and she had also attempted to commit suicide in the school but was stopped by her classmates.
The mother had alleged that the child was being mentally tortured by the two teachers who had abused and scolded her and were responsible for her death.