‘Punishment’ leaves Honnavar schoolboy dead

Close on the heels of the saddening news of a three-year-old girl being ‘sacrificed’ by practitioners of witchcraft in Mangalore, here is more shocking news from coastal Karnataka.

Fourteen-year-old Afzal Hamza Fayaz, a student of the eighth standard at New English School, Honnavar, in Uttara Kannada district, died after being allegedly administered ‘corporal punishment’ by his physical training teacher, KD Naik.

As news of the death of the child spread, people attacked the school and destroyed furniture. There were attempts to set the furniture on fire; timely intervention of police personnel prevented the mob from causing major damage.

It is learnt that Afzal had returned to school after recovering from a brief illness last weekend. He was asked to join the Physical Training (PT) class. Pleading weakness, the boy had asked to be spared. 

However, the teacher forced him to join the class, and also punished him for his alleged ‘laziness’. Naik asked Afzal to jog around the school ground twice, a distance of about 500 metres. After finishing one round, the boy said he felt weak, but the teacher, instead of relaxing the punishment, told the boy to run two more rounds.

After running one more round, the boy collapsed. Classmates rushed to his aid, but the teacher was adamant and would not budge. The boy was brought into the school, already limp. The headmaster made arrangements to take him to the government hospital nearby, where he was declared ‘brought dead’.

Another version narrated by students was that Afzal  was 15 minutes late on Monday morning. The PT teacher asked him to run four times around the school building as punishment. Afzal  ran three rounds, but failed to complete the fourth. Naik accused him of disobedience and slapped him hard. The boy collapsed.

Taluk medical officials said Afzal  had died of severe exhaustion and dehydration, which had affected a part of the brain. Afzal had just recovered from a bout of diahorrea and fever. He had been on a liquid diet, and the doctor had advised him rest for at least three days on January 7.

“I told him to stay back and not go to school, as he was so weak. He had not eaten any solid food in three days. He insisted on going, and he died at the hands of such a cruel teacher,” said a sobbing Abida Hamza, mother of Afzal, the main complainant, who lodged a case with the Honnavar town police station. The two-paragraph complaint alleged that Afzal had been tortured for arriving late to school, and held the teacher KD Naik responsible.

Principal of the school, Ganesh Hebbar, said, “I found Afzal immobile. I tried to revive him, and arranged to shift him to hospital. There is punishment for coming late. I am told that the PT teacher,was unaware that Afzal had returned after a bout of illness.” Police have arrested both Naik and Hebbar. 

Two years, two cases
The New English School is among the prestigious schools in Honnavar. It is run by a minority community. Over the last two years, two children have died in the school—in 2008, a boy was forced to take part in a sports meet despite being sick. He died on the field. In 2009, a boy from a tribal group committed suicide by jumping into the Shravati River after allegedly being ‘insulted’ by his teacher.

Uttara Kannada deputy commissioner BN Krishnaiah, superintendent of police Ramana Gupta and deputy director of public instructions CT Jayakumar are camping in Honnavar following this incident. The school has announced compensation of Rs1 lakh to Afzal ’s family, the Honnavar Pattana Panchayat Rs10,000 and the district education department, Rs25,000. Krishnaiah said he would recommend the chief minister  to release `1 lakh to the family.