WBBSE summons headmaster, managing staff over death of Class VI student

Kolkata: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) has summoned the headmaster and managing committee of Kishore Bharati School in Dum Dum to depose before the Board office in Salt Lake on November 19.

On October 8, one Rajarshi Roy, a class VI student of the school had died after going on a field trip with some friends and teachers at Hingalganj, North 24 Parganas.

"It has been learnt that the school authorities have not given the nod to students for going on such a trip. The deceased along with four of his classmates and four teachers had gone on such a field trip on their own accord. We want to verify the facts and deduce whether there was any gap on the part of the school and whether the school had taken all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of the students," a senior official of WBBSE said.

The body of a Class VI student of a Kishore Bharati school was recovered from a pond in Malekan Ghumti area under Hingalganj police station on October 8. Rajarshi a resident of Manikpur in Durganagar had gone there to shoot a documentary on the Sunderbans.

According to two of his friends who accompanied him, Rajarshi had slipped while walking beside a deep pond and drowned. The body was fished out after a two-hour search.

Rajarshi's father Mrityunjoy Das alleged negligence on the part of the teachers and demanded an enquiry. He had sought the intervention of the Secondary Board in this regard.