Suspended from school, teen kills self

NEW DELHI: In yet another case involving alleged high-handedness of school authorities, a 15-year-old girl hanged herself to death after she was allegedly suspended from the government school she was studying in at Sangam Vihar area of southeast Delhi.
The victim, Zeenat Khan, was a student of class VIII at Bachchan Prasad Government Senior Secondary School in Deoli village area.She was a resident of Gupta Colony in Sangam Vihar. According to her parents and neighbours, Zeenat was not good at studies and had been treated indifferently by her school. "She was very upset after she had failed for a second time in her exams and had been very depressed about it. Recently, her parents were called by the school authorities and she was suspended indefinitely. This broke her heart, finally forcing her to take the extreme step,'' said a neighbour.
However, school authorities said that she was suspended because she was caught stealing in her class. "This was not the first incident of theft that Zeenat was involved in. A day before her suicide, one of the girls in her class lost Rs 130. When the bags were checked, the money was found in Zeenat's bag. We then summoned her parents. When they came the next day, we told them to advise her not to indulge in such activities before sending her back to school,'' said a school spokesperson.
School authorities, however, clarified that Zeenat was not suspended because of her poor academic record and was not spoken to harshly. "We did not file a complaint with cops regarding theft because she was just a child and it would have caused her unnecessary harassment,'' said the school.
Sangam Vihar police is investigating the matter. "After the meeting with her teachers, Zeenat's father, Shahid Khan, a labourer in Okhla, went to his work while the mother-daughter duo headed for home. Mother went to market leaving Zeenat at home. On reaching home, Zeenat's mother found her hanging from the ceiling fan. No suicide note was found and the body was sent for postmortem,'' said a police officer. Zeenat's neighbours, friends and teachers are being questioned.