Family alleges foul play by teacher
Rajshahi: A 15-year-old committed suicide hours after visiting her school headmaster in school during summer vacation in Tanore upazila yesterday.
Why she killed herself is a mystery. Her family members suspect foul play by the headmaster while the teacher denied any wrongdoing.
Shanchita Khatun, 15, was a class-IX student of Chanduria Abu Bakar High School and the daughter of late Boyen Mondal of Duranpur.
Family members discovered her body hanging by her own scurf from her home ceiling around 1o:00am yesterday.
Ten-year-old brother of Shanchita, Mohammad Rabbi, said his sister and he went to the school after the headmaster called her over telephone yesterday morning around 7:30 to ask her to come in for sometime.
He said they were surprised at him calling since it was the summer vacation. He said his sister told him that the teacher would give her stipend money that day.
“Asking me to stay outside, the headmaster took her inside his office. About an hour later my sister came out looking very upset,” the boy said.
“Let’s go home, I’ll tell you later,” he quoted her sister as saying.
Shanchita’s uncle Afaz Uddin, 52, a farmer, alleged that an influential quarter was trying to cover up the matter. “We strongly suspect that the headmaster has done something very wrong to her… We can’t find any reason for the suicide… She was so smiling, meritorious and a nice girl.
“We want proper investigation,” he said.
Contacted over mobile phone, headmaster Mokhlesur Rahman denied any wrongdoing.
He said he indeed had called Shanchita to his office to inform her that she was selected for stipend and to have her fill in some forms. “She stayed at my office for 20-25 minutes. Nothing happened that can offend her. There were other school staffs during her stay as well,” he claimed.
When asked if Shanchita had filled those forms, the headmaster replied in the negative.
He said, “She used to hamper the school environment by helping other students have love affairs. She was given a good lesson for that.”
The headmaster continued to question her character. And at one stage he hung up on The Daily Star correspondent.
Officer-in-Charge Azizul Haque Sarker of Tanore Police Station said police recovered the body and were making arrangements to send it for autopsy.
“None so far made any complaint in this regard. We prepared the inquest report and nothing mentionable other than suicide signs were found in the report.”
-With The Daily Star input
