Sherwood principal, staff acquitted in Nepal student's death 10 yrs after incident
Dehradun: The principal of Sherwood College, Nainital,
Amandeep Sandhu
, who was earlier sentenced to two years' imprisonment for the 2014 death of a Nepalese student by a lower court, has been acquitted by a district court in Nainital. The court of the additional district and sessions judge also acquitted school nurse Payal Paul and warden Ravi Kumar, overturning the 2022 verdict by a trial court that sentenced all three to two years in prison and fined them Rs 50,000 each.
The court found "no negligence" on the part of the school staff in the death of
Shaan Prajapati
, who died of septicemia (blood poisoning) in Nov 2014 while being shifted from Haldwani's Bombay Hospital to Delhi. His mother, Neena Shrestha, had alleged that school authorities failed to provide timely and adequate medical assistance, leading to a case being filed against the three under IPC Section 304A (death by negligence).
In his judgment delivered on Tuesday, Judge Vikram noted that despite being aware of Prajapati's critical condition, Bombay Hospital transferred him to Delhi in an ambulance staffed by only one technician without informing or consulting either the school or his parents. The ambulance also reached Delhi late, observed the court.
It said there was no evidence to show that Sandhu was aware the 14-year-old was being shifted without a doctor. It also found no negligence on Kumar's part. Regarding Paul, the court noted that after learning of Prajapati's illness, she administered medicine on Nov 9, 2014. When his condition did not improve, he was taken to hospital on Nov 13. However, the court ruled that this delay did not constitute the causa causans (direct cause) of Prajapati's death.
Reacting to the verdict, Ujjwal Vikram Thapa, a 1986 Sherwood alumnus from Nepal, and key voice in the campaign for Prajapati's justice, told TOI that "the acquittal was both disappointing and shocking." "We were confident that the sessions court would uphold the trial court's verdict as every piece of evidence was presented, but the verdict that came is quite disappointing," he said, adding that they plan to challenge the ruling in the high court.
Thapa also pointed at the difficulty of pursuing the case from Nepal. "We have no one in India to follow up, and our only option is to rely on the Indian judiciary to get justice for the deceased boy," he said.
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