Hold doctor responsible for Shehla Sherin’s death: Panel

Says no action needed against teachers despite minor lapses from their side; official who gave fitness report to school also accountable
Shehla Sherin (Photo | Twitter)
Shehla Sherin (Photo | Twitter)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights chairman P Suresh has recommended strict action against the doctor who treated Shehla Sherin, the Sulthan Bathery student who died after she was bitten by a snake in the classroom.

The doctor should be held responsible for her death and action should be taken for lapses, he said in a report to the government. The commission, however, said no action should be taken against the teachers even though there was some minor delay in taking the student to hospital.  

The commission chairman said that the doctor had kept the child under observation for one hour without injecting anti-venom and then referred her to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital which is a three-hour drive from Sulthan Bathery. The official who had issued fitness certificate to the school is also responsible for the snakebite and subsequent death of the child, said the report. It said the official had given the fitness certificate even after a gaping hole was found in the classroom.

However, the commission in its report did not recommend any action against the teachers of Sarvajana Vocational HSS where the child was a Class V student. The commission chairman said that while there were minor lapses on the part of teachers, it did not amount to recommending foisting criminal charges against them.

He also said that the government has sanctioned C 10 lakh to the parents of the child as compensation.
 Suresh stuck to his earlier position that children at Kaithamukku in the state capital did not devour mud out of starvation. Instead, it was a concocted story, he said. He also lashed out at the Central Child Rights Commission on their intervention in matters where the State Child Rights Commission had intervened.

“The parallel investigation by the Central Child Rights Commission is against section 13.2 of Child Rights Act. The central commission can intervene in cases where the state commission is not acting or involved. In this case, the state commission had acted and given the report to the state. The intervention of the central commission even after this is not at all good,” he said.

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