A ninth grader died after he was tortured by the teachers of his school in Kaliganj upazila of Satkhira today.

Raj Pratap Das, son of Dinabandhu Das of Bharashimulia Chandipur area, died after several teachers of Nalta High School tortured him, said witnesses and locals.

A student named Muhammad Jubayer said it was his and another student's birthday, and all of them were in an empty classroom cutting a cake Raj and several others had brought around 10:00am.

All of a sudden, Assistant Head Teacher MA Muhit, assistant teachers Abakash Chandra Kha, Monirul Islam and Sidhartha Roy Chowdhury, and several others barged in and started beating them, he told The Daily Star.

Jubayer added that one of the teachers kicked Raj on his chest.

Jubayer, Raj, and two others were taken to the headteacher's room where they were assaulted again.

Raj and Jubayer then fell to the floor and touched the feet of Headteacher Abdul Monayem and asked for mercy, Jubayer said.

A while after they were dismissed from the headteacher's room, Raj told Jubayer that he was feeling unwell and left for home.

After 20 to 25 minutes, Jubayer heard that Raj had died.

Raj's aunt Taposhi Rani Das said her nephew was throwing up and complaining of severe chest pains when he came home.

The family was taking him to a hospital when he died.

Assistant Teacher Abakash said he slapped Raj twice for celebrating birthdays at school, and the other teachers had beaten Raj and the others.

Headteacher Monayem said the students were scolded, not beaten.

He added that he heard about Raj's death several hours later.

He also claimed to have heard that Raj died by suicide out of shame.

Later in the day, hundreds of locals went to the school with Raj's body and demonstrated. They vandalised the headteacher's room and damaged some properties.

Aminur Rahman, additional superintendent of police (Kaliganj Circle), said the headteacher and three assistant teachers were taken to Kaliganj Police Station for interrogation.

Mamun Rahman, officer-in-charge of the station, said it didn't seem like the boy had taken poison. However, the actual reason behind his death will be known after an autopsy, he added.