Aritry's class teacher sent to jail

A Dhaka court today sent the class teacher of Aritry Adhikary, a ninth-grader of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College who committed suicide, to jail after rejecting her bail in connection with a case filed over the incident.

Metropolitan Magistrate MD Abu Sayeed passed the order after police inspector Kamrul Hasan Talukdar produced her before his court with a prayer for confining her in jail.

On the other hand, defence lawyer Jahangir Alom submitted a petition seeking her bail stating that his client was not involved with the incident and she was not present during the time of examination.

Hasna Hena was arrested in connection with a case in which she was accused of instigating Aritry's suicide, said Khandoker Nurunnabi, deputy commissioner of the DB (east) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to The Daily Star.

Last night, the detectives arrested Hena from Uttara around 11:00pm.

WHAT HAPPENED TO ARITRY ADHIKARY?

Aritry Adhikary, a ninth grader, was found hanging from the ceiling of her home in the capital's Shantinagar on Monday (December 3) hours after she and her parents were allegedly insulted by some teachers of the school.

The death and the subsequent agitation, joined by parents, rocked the 66-year-old institute and prompted the education ministry and the school authorities to form two separate probe committees.

WHAT DID EDUCATION MINISTER NURUL ISLAM NAHID SAY?

Earlier on Tuesday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid visited the school and talked to the students , teachers and guardians.

He condemned the incident and said action would be taken against anyone found guilty.

"How much pain, how much insult does it take for a student to choose the path of suicide?” he asked.

An act of suicide reflects the environment of an institute, he said, adding, "No teacher can mete out psychological or physical torture as punishment. It is considered as offense," he said.

The ministry's three-member probe committee would be headed by Prof Yusuf, director of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, he said.

FAMILY SHATTERED

Holding the certificates of his daughter close to his chest, Dilip cried the entire time while talking to this correspondent.

"My daughter knew seven different languages and got an award from British Council  as best book reader,” he said, adding Aritry had secured GPA-5 in her  Primary Education Completion Examination and Junior School Certificate examinations in 2014 and 2017.

"I pleaded with them to give my daughter a second chance. Aritry even tried to hold the teachers' leg,” he said.

WHAT DID THE HIGH COURT ORDER?

The HC bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader ordered to form a probe committee following a report published in a Bangla daily on the incident.

Issuing a suo moto order, the HC asked the committee to formulate a comprehensive national policy to prevent the repetition of such incidents and to submit another report before it in a month.