After quelling violent demonstrations sparked by the event, Indian police confirmed Tuesday that they are looking for a teacher suspected of killing a low-caste pupil over a spelling error.
According to a police report from his father, Nikhil Dohre’s high school instructor kicked and hit him with a rod till he passed out earlier this month after he spelled “social” incorrectly in an exam.
The culprit has left the region, and the 15-year-old died from his injuries on Monday at a hospital in northern Uttar Pradesh.
Although he is evading capture, police official Mahendra Pratap Singh told AFP that he will be apprehended shortly.
Dohre belonged to the Dalit caste, which is at the bottom of the Indian caste system and has long faced prejudice and discrimination.
After learning of Dohre’s passing on Monday in the attack’s Auraiya area, hundreds of people flocked to the streets.
Before the boy’s body was cremated, the mob set fire to a police car and demanded that the instructor be taken into custody.
According to Singh, about a dozen demonstrators had been detained.
Reporters were told by Superintendent of Police Charu Nigam that “we utilised force to disperse the throng and the situation quickly came under control.”
