Rouvanjit case: court refuses prosecutor change

Kolkata: A Fast Track Court on Saturday rejected the petition of the father of Rouvanjit Rawla, who committed suicide after allegedly being caned by a teacher of the La Martiniere school in Kolkata last year, seeking change of the public prosecutor in the case questioning his neutrality.

RN Malik, judge of the Fast Track 3rd Court at Bankshall Court, rejected the petition filed by Ajay Rawla seeking change of public prosecutor Ganesh Maity, questioning his neutrality and directed commencement of proceedings in the case.

Maity submitted some documents before the court in support of the trial of the four teachers under charges of abatement to suicide.

The matter was adjourned for the day and would be heard again on April 2.

A magistrate had on November 19 ordered that the four teachers be tried under section 305 (abetment to suicide of a child), section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and section 34 (common intention) of IPC.

Section 305, if proved, can invite death sentence. The teachers of the reputed city school challenged this before a chief sessions judge, who kept open the issue saying that section 305 would be decided by the trial judge

during framing of charges.

Rouvanjit was found hanging at his residence on February 12, last year, four days after being allegedly caned by the principal for misbehaviour and disobedience.

Principal Sunirmal Chakravarti and the three teachers - Garnian, Partho Dutta and David Raun - were arrested on October four, 2010 for the suicide of the Class VII student, but were given bail the same day by the chief metropolitan

magistrate as all the sections of IPC they were charged with, were bailable.

The case had been filed by Ajay Rawla under section 305 (abetment to suicide of a minor) of IPC, but the police had filed lesser charges under sections 323 and 324 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (punishment without grave provocation) and 23 of the Juvenile Justice (negligence of duty).

Rouvanjit's father Ajay Rawla had filed a police complaint at the Shakespeare Sarani police station in Kolkata four months after the incident.