4 teachers held for girl's suicide over fee insult

Ghaziabad: Four teachers, including the acting principal of DSP Public School in Ghaziabad, were arrested on Thursday on charges of abetting the suicide of a 16-year-old student who, along with her father, was allegedly humiliated in public over non-payment of tuition fees.
Acting principal Shashi and teachers Kavita, Ashok and Durgesh were arrested day after Jasmine, a Class IX student, died.A local court in Ghaziabad has sent the four to judicial custody.
Two other teachers, Madhu and Priyanka, have also been named in the FIR lodged at Sihani Gate police station under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of IPC.
"Efforts are under way to arrest the other two teachers. From the inquiry conducted so far, it seems the women had falsely implicated the girl's father," SP (city), Salmantaj Patil told TOI.
Jasmine's father Bhaiya Ratan Singh Tomar, who works with a security agency in Ghaziabad, was taken to Sihani Gate police station on July 27 after the women teachers called up police control room alleging he had threatened and abused them.
News about Jasmine's death reached the police station later in the day after neighbours in the Ghookna area saw her body hanging in a room in her house with a stole around her neck.
"Nearly half a dozen teachers had barged into our house demanding the tuition fee that was due," Tomar told TOI. "They created a ruckus in front of our house in full public glare. They accused me of trying to pull them by their hands and threatening them. The whole neighbourhood was there and they knew nothing of the sort happened. While cops took me and two women teachers to the police station, the other teachers who stayed back for a while had hurled the filthiest abuses at Jasmine," Tomar said.
Tomar, who had dues of Rs 12,000 as tuition fees, has two more girls studying in Class IV and Class II in DSP Public School.
His son, who is aged three and a half years, is enrolled in nursery. He had admitted Jasmine to Guru Nanak Inter College in Lohia Nagar nearly a week ago after pulling her out from Class IX of DSP Public School.
The Ghaziabad district administration launched an inquiry into the functioning of the school following complaints from residents of Sewa Nagar. "The school has recognition to run classes only up to Class VIII," district magistrate Nidhi Kesharwani told TOI. "However, locals have complained that the school had started running Class IX as well from this academic year. We have initiated an inquiry into it. A team of officials went to the school on Thursday but all teachers and staff had fled. If enquiries reveal the school management had indeed begun enrolment for Class IX, we will recommend to the government to nullify its recognition. An FIR will also be lodged against the school management."