HC relief for DEO in school principal’s suicide case

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has stayed the police from taking any coercive action against the Banaskantha district education officer, Hitesh Patel, after he was implicated in a school principal's suicide case. The DEO, along with five others, is facing charges of abetment to suicide after Bharat Parmar, the principal of MS School in Pathwada village near Tharad, died by suicide following an inquiry instituted over a dummy student case in his school during the board exams.The school principal was summoned twice by the DEO to inquire into the case, in which a dummy student, Ganpat Joshi, was caught on March 8 in place of one Lalji Patel, who filled the form and was supposed to take the exam for Class 12. At the instance of Parmar's family member, the police registered an FIR on March 15 against six persons, including the DEO, for causing harassment to the principal, which drove him to kill himself by jumping in a Narmada canal.The family cited a message sent by Parmar before his death in which he mentioned three persons and complained of harassment. It was also alleged that the DEO pressured Parmar to admit his involvement in the incident. The DEO approached the HC three days after the FIR and requested to quash it. He submitted that after the dummy student's case came to the fore, he was directed by the higher-ups to conduct an inquiry. Accordingly, an inquiry was initiated, and, in the meantime, the principal committed suicide before he came in response to the second summons.Patel's petition was opposed by the state govt as well as by Parmar's family, and it was submitted that the DEO threatened Parmar and put tremendous pressure on him to admit the guilt. This information was conveyed by Parmar to his father a day before he died. It was contended that the DEO was pressuring Parmar to save the skin of a co-accused, a teacher in the school, Ankita Mehta.After the preliminary hearing, Justice D A Joshi issued notice seeking a reply by June 30. "In the meantime, the investigation may go on, but no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner," the HC order reads.
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