HARYANA: The faces of six Class 4 students of a private school here, including two girls, were allegedly blackened and they were paraded in the school premises for scoring poorly in a test, police said on Tuesday.
The incident took place on Friday and one of the girls, a 9-year-old Dalit, informed her parents about it.
Her parents told reporters on Tuesday that the family members went to the school to lodge a complaint about the treatment meted out to the children, but the authorities failed to take action against the staff responsible.
A complaint was then lodged with the police.
A case under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was registered against four persons, including the school principal, on Saturday, the police said.
On Monday, the girl's family was joined by some other parents and they held a protest outside the old vegetable market police post here demanding that the police take immediate action in the matter.
Members of some Dalit outfits also reached there after learning about the incident.
An official went to the school on Monday, but found it locked. The school principal and his family were also not found at home, the police said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), Hisar, Ashok Kumar, is investigating the matter.
Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal told reporters in Chandigarh that such things will not be tolerated.
"Whatever action is required to be taken in the matter is being taken and an FIR has already been registered," he said.
Home Minister Anil Vij also condemned the incident.