Student cremated as police assure probe

Patiala: Two days after a 16-year-old student of Meritorious School, Ghabdan, in Sangrur allegedly committed suicide inside his hostel room, his parents finally cremated the body on Wednesday.The last rites, however, were carried out only after an assurance from the police administration that a thorough probe would be conducted into the matter.Earlier, the parents of the deceased student had refused to cremate the body and sat in front of the school gate over their demand to get a schoolteacher booked and arrested for abetment to suicide.They claimed that a schoolteacher had called and informed them about the poor academic performance of their son around three hours before he had allegedly committed suicide.The police on Monday had claimed that prima facie the student had committed suicide as he was stressed due to his poor performance in the Class XII pre-board exams.Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Manoj Gorsi said: “The matter has been resolved with registration of a case under Section 174 of the CrPC.”Sangrur SDM Charanjot Singh Walia said: “The post-mortem has been conducted and the body has been cremated. The parents have been convinced on assurance that police will investigate the matter thoroughly.”Earlier, SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema had posted on X that the alleged suicide by a Meritorious School student was “most tragic”. He also pointed out that a few weeks ago, a large number of students from the same school had to be admitted to a hospital due to food poisoning and demanded judicial probe into student’s suicide.