10-yr-old dies after teacher hurls duster

Debajyoti Chakraborty | TNN

Andal (WB): A 10-year-old girl died here on Thursday after an angry teacher hurled a duster that hit her on the forehead.

Shockingly, the school did not inform Babli Ghosh’s guardians—a maternal uncle and aunt, her parents live in another town—until after she had died, at 5 pm. Rekha Bhakat, the teacher, is on the run. The headmistress, too, filed a police complaint, but only after she was gheraoed by angry parents on Friday.

A classmate of Babli alleged, “The teacher found some mistakes in Babli’s Bengali notebook. She shouted at her and in a fit of rage, threw the duster at her. We were shocked.” The duster hit Babli, sitting in front row, on her forehead. She collapsed and vomited four times, she said.

Teachers rushed Babli to hospital at 12.45 pm but her condition deteriorated. At 4.30 pm, when she became still, she was taken to a hospital in Durgapur town where she was declared dead on arrival.