UP: Dalit Student In Auraiya Beaten to Death For Spelling Error, Booked

Lucknow: A dalit youth died on Sunday, days after he was allegedly beaten up by his upper caste teacher in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh. The fifteen-year-old was assaulted on September 7, purportedly for making a mistake in an exam.

Nikhil Dohre, a class 10 student of Adarsh Inter College Achhalda succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, Etawah.

The boy’s father, who lodged a complaint against the teacher, handed over the hospital’s medical report relating to injuries to the victim, to the Achalda police. First Information Report (FIR) registered in the case under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The FIR accessed by NewsClick further stated that the teacher had taken a test of social science. Nikhil made a mistake while writing the spelling and this enraged the teacher, who first banged his head on the wooden bench and then hit him with a duster. The teacher then beat him with a stick.

"On 7 September, social science teacher Ashwini Singh took a test in the class. My son studied a lot for the test. He was good at studies but he misspelled a word in the test. Regarding the same thing, teacher Ashwini Singh grabbed my son by the hair and beat him with kicks, punches and sticks so much that he fainted in school itself," deceased father Raju told NewsClick.

He had been undergoing treatment in a hospital in Etawah district since September 7 and the teacher also helped the family financially.

"He had been undergoing treatment in a hospital in Etawah district since September 7 and the teacher also helped the family financially. However, he refused to give money after learning that he was referred to Lucknow for treatment. After nearly 20 days in hospital his condition deteriorated and was declared dead on September 26 morning, the police said.

The victim’s father stated in his complaint that he had gone to the school in the afternoon on Wednesday to pick up his son. While they were on their way home, his son told the complainant that his teacher had beaten him up for having misspelt a word in his exam, the complaint stated.

"When my wife and I went to the school to complain about the brutal beating of my child, the accused teacher started abusing us and hurled casteist slurs at us in front of others. He threatened us and asked us to leave," Raju alleged.

Charu Nigam, Superintendent of Police Auraiya told NewsClick, "We learned about the incident after the complaint was registered with the police. We have talked to Etawah CMO to get the panel and video graph to know about the cause of death. Correspondence has also been done. Further action is in progress. Three teams have been formed to arrest the accused.”

The SP further said that he was initially taken to the private hospitals in Auraiya and Etawah, but was later referred to Lucknow where he was treated for around a week. He was then taken to medical college Etawah, but his condition continued to worsen, and he eventually succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.

A villager who is accompanying Nikhil's father told NewsClick, "For social science exam, the students were given a question paper and an OMR sheet, the question paper consists of multiple-choice questions and students have to fill the correct answer in the OMR sheet. Nikhil had blackened two boxes instead of one in the OMR sheet and made another spelling error. Angered by this, the teacher beat him with sticks, kicks and punches so much that he fainted. After 18 days of treatment he died.

NewsClick also approached Adarsh Inter College principal Sushil Kumar Tiwari to know the reality, he said, "I am not aware of the incident since I was on leave."

Meanwhile, Raju, a landless farmer was so scared that he would never allow his two other sons Raghav (12) and Abhishek (6) to go to school who also study in the same school.

"I am a landless farmer and whatever I earn through farming and other labour work, I manage to send my all my kids to the school but if we will be targeted or face casteist slurs on a daily basis and even our children will be killed like this then no point to educate them," the deceased father recalled many instances of casteism his son used to tell him on campus but little did he know that his son will be victim of caste system.

The incident has sparked outrage among the dalit community in the region with members of Bhim Army, a dalit rights group, reaching the village of the deceased. The district administration has deployed additional forces in the victim’s village to control the situation.

"This is not an isolated case of dalit atrocities in Uttar Pradesh. It keeps happening on a regular basis, our community is being targeted everywhere in school, home, workplace. We are not safe anywhere, where should we go? Is this the best law and order Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claims?" a Bhim Army leader told NewsClick.

To recall, last month, a Dalit student in Ballia district was allegedly locked up in a classroom and beaten with a metal rod by his teacher for touching the latter's motorcycle. The teacher, Krishna Mohan Sharma was suspended later.