Pupil cleaning school toilets gets acid burns

Sanjay Yadav

Gurugram, January 24

High drama prevailed at Dhankot village in the district as a Class VIII student was injured when his classmates threw acid on him playfully while they were cleaning school toilets. 

Enraged over students being made to clean toilets with acid, Dhankot villagers led by the sarpanch staged a protest and complained to the police, following which a case was registered against the local government senior secondary school authorities today. 

The school authorities, however, claimed the students were working in a lab and not cleaning toilets, as alleged in the complaint. The police are investigating the matter while the school principal has taken the responsibility of getting the child, who suffered eight per cent acid burns, treated.

Rather than apprising the police of the incident, the school tried to hush up the matter, allege villagers. 

According to the complaint filed by Sunil Kumar, father of the 14-year-old victim and a resident of Dhankot village, around 1 pm on Thursday his son was brought home by his three schoolteachers. His face bore burn marks and his clothes had acid stains. The teachers claimed he was injured in the lab while doing an experiment.

“I took my son to a private hospital for treatment. When we reached the hospital, he told me that the principal had asked four-five students, including him, to clean rooms and toilets. While they were cleaning, a student threw acid on him. I called my village sarpanch Dinesh Sehrawat, who came home and then we called the police,” Sunil Kumar has stated in his complaint.

In the afternoon, the villagers protested outside the school. Soon, the police as well as Education Officer Prem Lata Yadav reached the spot.

While the school authorities and the villagers reached a compromise, the police booked the principal and other staff under Section 326-A (causing injury) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

The principal could not be contacted despite several attempts. “The injured boy was taken for medical examination to the civil hospital, where doctors said he had 8 per cent burn injuries on eyes, nose, left cheek and left thigh, but was out of danger,” said the investigating officer.