23 April,2014 07:09 AM IST | | Team mid-day
Deceased boy’s father said that the school accused him of stealing sports certificates; unable to bear humiliation, he called up his mother and told her he didn’t want to live
A Std IX student committed suicide by jumping in front of a local train at Mahim station, following alleged harassment by the teachers of the school he was studying in.
The incident took place on Monday and, according to the police, the deceased boy had called up his mother to inform her about his plans to end his life, a few minutes before he leapt in front of the approaching fast train. The boy identified as Dipesh Teke (17), was a student of Saraswati Mandir Education Society in Mahim and resided with his family at Dharavi.
The police said the school had blamed Dipesh, along with a few of his friends, for some missing certificates that disappeared from the school premises recently. The boy's father said the issue was going on for a few days, and on Monday he was called to the school by the principal to discuss the matter.
"The school had blamed him (Dipesh) for some missing sports certificates that had disappeared from the school and wanted a written apology from him in the matter," said Kishore Teke, father of the boy, who works at Vashi's APMC grain market.
According to the father, Dipesh had told his parents that he never stole them. "Our stand was that when he did not commit the theft then why should we accept it. I, however, requested the teacher to give him one chance, but they asked us to remove our son from the school. My son was unnecessarily harassed by the school and its principal," added Kishore.
The incident
Around 4.40 pm, the Government Railway Police officials (GRP) were informed of a boy coming under the train at Mahim and rushed to the spot after which they took him to Nair hospital, but he was declared dead before admission.
"With the help of his school ID card, the cops traced us and informed us about the death. I immediately called my son's teacher and told her about the incident. He was to celebrate his birthday on May 1. We never anticipated that he would take such a drastic step," said the father.
The Mumbai Central GRP has asked the family to approach the Mahim police station in whose jurisdiction the school comes, to register a complaint. "We will register an FIR in the matter soon," said a police officer from Mahim station. Despite several attempts, the school's principal was not available for comment.
Inputs by Vinay Dalvi, Richa Pinto and Rane Ashish
