Hyderabad: It was for a small amount of Rs1,800 (Dh103) that a Dalit student at a private school in the city took her own life, officials say.
As the people in Malkajgiri area of Secunderabad were trying to come to terms with the death of 14-year-old-Dalit girl K. Sai Deepti, police arrested the Jyothi High school principal and two other staff members under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.
The student returned home after school authorities barred her from writing a class test as she had not paid examination fee of Rs1,800.
Deepti’s distraught father K.S. Balakrishna alleged that the girl was humiliated and insulted in the name of her caste driving her to suicide. The girl ended her life by hanging herself in a bedroom.
“I will pay Rs10,000 to the school. Will they be able to bring back my daughter,” an inconsolable father cried in pain.
“They told my daughter that if they could not pay fees, SC students should not be admitted into schools,” Balakrishna said.
Police have arrested principal Galla Lakshmi, class teacher A Satyanarayana Raj and the treasurer Shaikh Sajida.
They appeared before a court, which remanded them to judicial custody for two weeks.
The incident comes as indiscriminate hikes in school fees by management of various private schools has become a big issue in Telangana and many parents have come out on the streets to protest.
Family members said that the payment of examination fee had delayed as the scholarship money from the government was not deposited in her bank account in time.
