An 11-year-old Dalit boy from V. Agaram Government School in Villupuram district was injured after his teacher allegedly beat him with a bamboo stick on March 14. Following the assault, the boy, M. Sadhusundar, complained of blurry vision and was rushed to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry, where he underwent surgery for nerve damage.
R Velmurugan, the district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for South Chennai, shared images of the boy recovering after surgeries on social media. Velmurugan claimed that the teacher, Sengenni, hit Sadhusundar on the head, causing a fractured skull and nerve damage. He also accused authorities of not taking any action against the teacher.
Villupuram Superintendent of Police (SP) P. Saravanan said that an FIR was filed the same day as the incident, March 14, and that the teacher, Sengenni, was suspended by the school department on March 15.
“The boy was struck on his hands by the teacher, Sengenni. He later became unwell and was taken to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed nerve damage in his head,” SP Saravanan told the News Minute. He also mentioned that the police had consulted JIPMER doctors to understand the cause of the nerve damage, as there were no visible external injuries.
The SP further explained that Sengenni has not been charged under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as he is from a Scheduled Caste (SC) community. However, he stated that the FIR would be updated based on the findings of the medical investigation.
This story was originally published in theobserverpost.com.