Horrific Incident in Shimla School: Three Teachers Accused of Assaulting 8-Year-Old Dalit Boy, Putting Scorpion in His Pants

Police on Sunday said three teachers, including the headmaster of a government school in Shimla, have been booked for repeatedly assaulting an eight-year-old Dalit boy and allegedly putting a scorpion inside his pants.

According to the complaint, filed by the child’s father, the incident took place at a government primary school in Khadapani area under Rohru subdivision of Shimla district. The father accused Headmaster Devender and teachers Babu Ram and Kritika Thakur of regularly beating his son for almost a year.

He said that the constant beatings caused severe ear injuries, with the child’s ear bleeding and his eardrum reportedly ruptured. The complaint further alleged that the teachers took the boy to the school toilet, where they placed a scorpion inside his pants.

Following the complaint, police registered a case under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) — including Section 127(2) (wrongful confinement), Section 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), Section 351(2) (criminal intimidation), Section 3(5) (acts done with common intention), and provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act related to cruelty toward children.

The accused have also been charged under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which covers offenses such as forced disrobing, acts intended to humiliate members of Scheduled Castes or Tribes, and crimes motivated by caste-based discrimination.

Police said senior officers are determining whether the investigation should be conducted by a gazetted officer.

According to the father, the teachers threatened his son with arrest if he told anyone at home about the abuse. On October 30, the headmaster allegedly warned that the boy would be expelled from school and that the family would “face dire consequences” if they went public with the matter — even threatening, “We will burn you.”

The father said he, too, was warned not to file a police complaint or post about the incident on social media, or he would “pay with his life.”

He also alleged that teacher Kritika Thakur’s husband, Nitish Thakur, had been illegally teaching students at the school in her place for the past year.

The complaint accused the school staff of practicing caste-based discrimination, stating that during midday meals, Nepali and Dalit students were made to sit separately from Rajput students.

This is not the first such incident reported from Rohru. Just last week, a teacher at a government primary school in Gawana was suspended for allegedly beating a student with a thorny branch. Earlier, a 12-year-old Dalit boy in Limda village of Rohru reportedly died by suicide after upper-caste women locked him in a cowshed for entering their home.