Delhi student’s suicide: On his last ride to Metro station, teen spoke of ‘torture by teachers’

Soon after they parted, around 2.45 pm, the distressed Class 10 student of St. Columba’s School died after jumping from the Rajendra Place  Metro Station platform to the street below. On Thursday, four teachers were suspended by the school after an FIR was registered on a complaint from the boy’s father.

On Friday, speaking to The Indian Express about that journey, Deepshika said she was seated in the e-rickshaw with her son, who studies in Class 8 at St Columba’s, and another student from the institution when they were joined by the 16-year-old boy.

“‘Bhaiya, jaldi chalo… RK Ashram Metro Station’, he told the driver. The moment he sat down, he burst into sobs. Concerned, I turned to him and asked, ‘Beta, what happened? Why are you crying?’ His answer was blunt and completely unexpected. ‘Aunty, please strike your child’s name from this school. I made a huge mistake by taking admission here’,” Deepshika recalled.

“When I gently asked him what was wrong, he said, ‘I am in Class 10. There are just ten days left for the board exam…but the teachers are torturing me. My father is a businessman…but these teachers…’ He went on to say that the ‘torture’ had continued throughout the year and that for every small issue, the teachers insisted that his parents be called to the school,” she said.

“He said his father worked out of state and asked, while crying, ‘Will my parents do their jobs or keep coming to school?’ I asked him who those teachers were, and he named four. Trying to console him, I said, ‘It’s okay. There are many teachers in the school, not just these few. And it’s only two more years’,” Deepshikha said.

“When my son asked him about the teachers, the boy began crying louder,” she said.

According to Deepshika, who hails from Samastipur in Bihar and has been a Delhi resident for 19 years, she got down at Gole Market just before the RK Ashram station, which is three stops away from Rajendra Place.

“I saw him still crying inside the e-rickshaw, and asked, ‘Beta, do you have money for the ride?’ He shook his head. I handed him a Rs 10 note. He thanked me in a soft voice,” she said. “If I had even the slightest idea that he was going to take such a drastic step, I would have stopped the e-rickshaw, taken his parents’ number, and contacted them.”