Kolkata: In a throwback to medieval times, a teacher in a West Bengal school punished three Class V girls by forcing them to hold on to flaming newspapers till their hands were singed.
The incident occurred in Sarenga High School at Sankrail in Howrah district near here Tuesday, triggering an outcry that the teacher be punished.
The palm of one of the three girls, 12-year-old Halima Khatun, was severely burnt.
News reports said the three girls - Halima Khatun, Bilkis Khatun and Anusree Sardar - of the Howrah school were told by their work education teacher Suresh Maiti to hold on to the burning papers and not drop them.
All this as punishment for accidentally bumping into classmate Suhel Sheikh who came running from the opposite direction.
Suhel's complaint to the work education teacher led to the burning test.
The teacher asked all the three girls to confess who was the real "culprit" responsible for the collision with Suhel. When all three were quiet, he thought of the fire trial as a way for them to cough up the truth.
"When I was crying in pain, the teacher was laughing. He said the one who would drop the flaming paper first would be considered guilty," Halima said.
Halima's mother Monohara Begum later took her to the panchayat and showed her burnt hand. The village body informed the Sankrail police station, about 25 km from Kolkata, immediately.
The parent also filed a police complaint and later the accused teacher was arrested. Halima is the daughter of a daily wage labourer.
The teacher-in-charge of the high school, Shibaram Mukherjee, said the school would bear the cost of Halima's treatment.
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