Kolkata: The death of a minor girl student after being bullied and the subsequent ransacking of a school in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district took on a political colour yesterday after the ruling Trinamool Congress attributed the vandalism to “CPI-M’s conspiracy”.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) rubbished the allegations and in turn blamed the Trinamool for the fiasco.
Oindrila Das, a class 5 student of Christ Church School in Dum Dum, died on September 11, a week after she was allegedly locked up inside the school toilet by some of her seniors who demanded money from her.
A day later, the 131-year old institution witnessed unprecedented scenes as hundreds of people — mostly parents — ransacked the institution, locked up the principal and other teachers inside a dark room and eventually forced the principal Helen Sarkar to resign.
Twelve people have been arrested for vandalism.
“The death of the girl is unfortunate, but the CPI-M is behind the ransacking and they have done it in pursuance of their conspiracy to malign the (state) government,” said Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy.
Rubbishing Roy’s claims, CPI-M central committee member Mohammad Salim instead pointed the finger at the Trinamool, saying it was only part of a series of attacks that have been carried out on educational institutions under the two-year-old regime. “The Trinamool has now perfected its knack of blaming us for all its evils. If they were so concerned, why did the administration prefer to be a mute spectator when the vandalism was going on? It is only a part of series of attacks that the Trinamool has been carrying out on educational institutions,” said Salim.
The state has witnessed a spate of campus violence in the last
two years. IANS
