Student tortured with blades and sticks for food

Kolkata: In a horrific case of hazing, a standard VIII boy was assaulted by his classmates for food. According to police reports, five boys from Salboni High School hostel in West Midnapur in West Bengal allegedly used blades and sticks to torture their fellow student when he refused to share food he had brought from home.

“After he came back from his home, five boys at the hostel tortured him with sticks and blades till the boy passed out. He was also allegedly given death threats by the five students later, if he dared to name them,” said the officer-in-charge of the local police station.

“They accused me for something I didn’t do and beat me up. They cut me with blades and then beat me with sticks. There were five of them, the boys didn’t let me go to school, I somehow managed to escape and come home,” said the victim.

The boy’s family lodged a complaint with the police, and the five students have been rusticated from the school.

“We are taking all measures to ensure that such incidents do not occur. It is a common practice for students to share food with other students when they come back from home. But it can never lead to physical assault. We have rusticated the boys and are takin disciplinary measures against such actions,” said the headmaster of the school.

“All I will say is that students come to hostel and schools to study. If they resort to such cruel practices like ragging {hazing], others also learn the same. I want the authorities to take strict action so that such things never happen. I want punishment for all those boys,” said the victim’s father.

Though hazing is being termed as a criminal offence that can lead to imprisonment as per the directive of the Calcutta High Court, incidents in schools and colleges are not uncommon in Bengal.

“Cases of physical ragging {hazing] is not uncommon is colleges, but now the incident has spread to schools, which in turn leads to juvenile crime and that is a area of serious concern,” said Arnab Roy, principal secretary of the school education department.