Teacher denies corporal punishment charge, pleads innocence

Updated on: Saturday, April 25, 2009

New Delhi: A government school teacher blamed for the death of 11-year-old Shano Khan on Friday broke her silence and denied she had ever beaten the girl or made her sit out in the sun.

"I have never done anything like this with her or with any child," Manju told reporters here.

Manju spoke out a day after Delhi Police said the autopsy report on the girl hinted that she could have died due to an epileptic attack.

Giving her version of the incident, she said Shano had started vomiting an hour after eating food. "Her mother was called and she was sent back with her mother," she said in Hindi, appearing before the media for the first time since the incident.

Shano Khan, a Class 2 student had slipped into coma on Wednesday last week, a day after her teacher Manju allegedly beat her for failing to recite the English alphabet and forced her to crouch down in the hot sun for more than an hour. Shano was a student of a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) school in northwestern Delhi.

The girl was shifted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital after her condition deteriorated. She died on last Friday

Manju attacked the media, saying the charges levelled against her were their work. "You people can charge me with anything? all these charges have been levelled by you (media persons)."

Asked if she would go back to the school, Manju said, "Definitely, I will go back to the school to teach children. the children have not accused me of anything. The charges have been levelled by others, the children are not to be blamed."

Manju was booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 304-A (death due to negligence - which is a bailable offence) after Shano died, apparently due to corporal punishment.

"For the first time I learnt that one could face such major charges without doing anything wrong... My family's reputation has been tarnished?.My family is very depressed," she added.

Her family has demanded strict action against those who levelled the allegations against Manju.

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Teacher denies corporal punishment charge, pleads innocence

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