Police say 12-year-old at Visapur Sainik School died by suicide after being returned to hostel

New details have emerged in the suspicious death of a 12-year-old student of Sanmitra Sainik School at Visapur in Chandrapur district. The parents had initially accused the school management of negligence. However, according to official information given by Prabhavati Ekurke, police inspector of Ramnagar police station, the police investigation has established that the boy took the extreme step after a decision by his father.

According to Ekurke, it was the boy's first year at the military school. On October 8 he developed a skin problem, an itch. The school management then called his father urgently and advised him to take the boy home until he recovered fully, it is learnt.

The father, however, took the boy to a doctor outside for initial treatment and brought him back to the school within just two hours. On realising that he could not go home and would have to stay in the same surroundings again, the boy became very dejected and kept crying. The police investigation has established that in that distress he hanged himself in the hostel with a nylon rope tied near his cot for drying clothes.

On the day of the incident, the father brought him near the school and bought him some snacks. But the boy was sad at having to return to school instead of going home, and kept crying. When the father left for the village, the boy went to his bed. All the other children were then out on the playground. He kept crying for seven to eight minutes and then hanged himself with the nylon rope near his bed. A little later another boy came there and, seeing the sight, informed the teachers directly, but by then it was too late.

Mohan Pathak, principal of Sanmitra Sainik School, put forward the school's position. He said the death was an extremely unfortunate and painful incident. He said the allegations of negligence against the school administration were completely false. When the trouble began on October 8, it was the school that first took the boy to a doctor, he said. When the father arrived, he was given an "outpass" and asked to take the boy home until he recovered, but within two hours of the treatment the father left him back at school, Pathak said. He added that the boy was upset and crying because he could not go home. Principal Pathak also said the boy was a very bright student and that the school is cooperating fully with the police investigation.

The entire incident was captured on the school's cameras. The police and the school administration have shown all the footage to the boy's father in person. The police findings have removed the suspicion against the school administration. The father's decision not to take the boy home on one hand, and the strain of a new environment on a young mind on the other, led to the death of the 12-year-old. The incident has caused grief in the area, and Ramnagar police are investigating the case further.