She Was With Vice Principal For 2 Hours Before Death: Faridabad Girl's Father

"What kind of punishment lasts for two hours inside a room," asks the father of a 16-year-old girl, who jumped from the third floor of a school building in Haryana's Faridabad and died.

The incident took place on Tuesday at the Navodaya Vidya Niketan Senior Secondary School. The girl's father, Pramod Kumar, has claimed that his daughter was punished for eating biryani and ordered to stand outside the classroom under the sun.

The girl, Janvi, then went to the vice principal's room and returned after nearly two hours, according to CCTV footage accessed by Kumar. She then went straight to the third floor and jumped to her death.

"My daughter's friend told us that they had eaten biryani at school, after which she was punished and told to stand outside the classroom. The school's CCTV footage shows that she went into the vice-principal's room at around 11 am and came out two hours later. No one knows what happened inside that room," said Kumar. "The CCTV shows Janvi coming out once or twice before going back into the vice-principal's room. She came out again at around 1:30 pm and then went straight to the third floor."

When asked if Janvi had ever received punishment such as standing under the sun before, Kumar said "no". He further accused the school of "hiding its shortcomings" and informing the family late about the unfortunate incident.

"Whenever anything happened at school, if she was unwell or there was any other issue, the school would call me immediately. But yesterday, they did not call me even once," Kumar said.

Kumar alleged that the family was informed about their daughter jumping from the school building "at the last moment" and that the school administration left the hospital "without meeting" the parents.

According to the school principal RK Sharma, Janvi went to the washroom on the third floor. Calling it an "outright lie", Kumar again questioned what happened inside the vice principal's room.

"That is completely false... We checked the footage. She was inside for two hours. What kind of punishment was she given? We don't know what they did to her inside... They told us this (the alleged suicide attempt) only around 2:30 pm, after the school had closed, even though the incident had happened much earlier."

The injured student was taken to a private hospital, from where she was referred to BK Hospital, where doctors declared her dead. The post-mortem examination is underway, and further action will be taken based on the report.

According to the Station House Officer Sumir Singh, no complaint has been filed seeking for registering an FIR. However, an investigation into the matter is underway.

"We have not found anything suspicious in the footage or any suspicious activity at the school," Singh told NDTV. "So far, there is nothing before us to suggest that she was punished for four hours."

Speaking to NDTV, a fellow parent, whose four children studied at the same school, claimed that the school is infamous for giving harsh punishments to children.

"My children were asked to stand in the sun, thrashed and humiliated publicly for a delay in fee payment," she said.

Janvi's father, Kumar, has called for a thorough investigation and demanded a post-mortem at AIIMS hospital.

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