Bengaluru schoolboy attempts suicide after ‘punishment by teacher’; FIR filed

3 min readBengaluruUpdated: Jul 15, 2026 06:07 PM IST

The police have registered a case against the school principal, secretary, and teachers under charges including voluntarily causing hurt and cruelty to a child. (File Photo)

A 13-year-old student allegedly attempted suicide after he was reportedly made to stand outside his classroom for a day as punishment following an altercation with another student at a West Bengaluru school, the police said on Wednesday.

The boy’s family said he attempted suicide after returning home from school on Tuesday. The family took the boy to a hospital, where he is undergoing treatment. The police stated that the next 48 hours are crucial for him.

In their police complaint, his parents alleged that the boy’s class teacher made him stand outside the classroom from morning till evening on Tuesday.

“Over the past few months, my son repeatedly complained that school staff harassed him and subjected him to casteist slurs. Because of this, he refused to attend school. However, we persuaded him to complete the ongoing academic term after assuring him that we would shift him to another school thereafter,” the boy’s father said in the complaint.

Seeking legal action against the teacher, the parents alleged that the punishment had a serious psychological impact on their son and drove him to take the extreme step.

The police have registered a case against the school’s principal, secretary, and teachers under charges including voluntarily causing hurt, as well as cruelty to a child under the Juvenile Justice Act. They said a preliminary inquiry is underway.

The boy appeared calm, says principal

When contacted, the principal told indianexpress.com that the boy had had a fight with another boy over a torn project report and that the other boy was injured. The class teacher intervened, counselled the boy, and asked him to bring his parents to the school to discuss the seriousness of his actions. “After this interaction, [the boy] appeared calm and attended his remaining classes as usual,” the principal added.

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The other student had not damaged the project, according to the principal.

According to the boy’s father, the student, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste community, was admitted to the school under the Right to Education quota. He said his son has consistently performed well in academics and extracurricular activities.