SHILLONG: Mystery surrounds as to the manner in which the Jhalupara girl, a student of the school situated near Garikhana landed up at Umiam, and the subsequent recovery of her body from Umiam lake on June 15, two days after she went missing from school on June 13.
Relatives of the girl are in a state of shock and surprised that the class teacher of the school despite being informed that the girl ran away, did not care to inform the family members.
Police had earlier said that according to her parents, the girl did not return home after school.
Blaming the teacher’s negligence, the eldest sister of the girl said, “I am convinced it is the teacher’s fault. Some students noticed that my sister ran away from school at 10:30 am and immediately informed the teacher who took no action or try to inform us. Had she informed us, we could have searched for her on the very same day instead.”
“The next day, we took her photograph, went asking people around. On enquiring, a man said that he saw her walking alone along the Barapani petrol pump road,” she added.
“Moreover, my sister was in school uniform and it should have been the responsibility of the teacher but she asserted that she (the victim) may have gone out to make some purchases. In that case, when the roll call was done she should have enquired about her or call us but she did not,” her sister lamented.
Meanwhile, the school authorities of the girl recalled that they were taken aback at the news of her death as they remember her as a very good and obedient student.
The headmaster of school R.P. Bhattacharjee said, “It is beyond our imagination to think that someone like her can get away. She was an obedient student and nobody believed that she left the school, we thought she did not attend the school.”
On being asked as to why the teacher took her absence lightly and did not raise any doubt, he said that generally students leave the school and teachers would find them outside in the streets,
He added, “We could have noticed if there was any abnormality or change in her behavior but there was nothing as such.”
When contacted, police said that they are waiting for the postmortem report and no one has been arrested so far.
