Jalandhar: A Class XII student of a reputed CBSE-affiliated school in the city committed suicide by hanging herself from a fan at her home in Kot Bahadur Khan last evening. The deceased Niharika was a student of commerce stream at Police DAV Public School. Her father Vipin Kumar said his daughter was scared of going to school for the past few days but did not reveal her troubles to anyone at home. He said he returned from work at 8 pm and asked about Niharika, only to be told by his wife that she was in her room, which she had locked from inside. Kumar said he had to break open the door and saw his daughter hanging from the fan with the help of a dupatta. He said the last call on his daughter’s phone was from her teacher.
There were also some chats with a friend in her phone, in which she had expressed some apprehensions about her teacher picking up the phone. She had also told her friend that she might take this step. The family has now alleged that the girl was being harassed by her teacher to pay school fees and hence was scared to take her calls or attend classes. Since this morning, the police have been trying to record the statements of the teacher and the parents. Police said that the principal of DAV Public School, Dr Rashmi Vij, flatly denied the allegations of the parents. She said, “We are also saddened by the loss of our student, but it is completely unfair to blame the school or the teacher for her death.
We have all the records and minutes of the meeting in which we had granted her full fee waiver. Her education is being funded by my son, who is settled in the US. Her elder sister had also availed partial fee waiver from our school after her mother approached us about the financial problems at home.” He said, “Our teacher was calling the girl as she was not coming to school since August 14. She had come to school only for 30 days so far. Even in class 11, her attendance was only 51 days. Her teacher was trying to call her and tell her to attend her classes and start preparing well for the upcoming mid-term exams.” The body of the deceased has been taken to the civil hospital for post-mortem. Police officials said they are still in the process of taking statements and an FIR has not been filed yet.
