New Delhi: The school teacher from Jharkhand’s Dumka who was beaten up by students recently for allegedly giving them “low marks” in a Class IX practical examination is said to have been demoted from the post of school headmaster a few months ago after he used casteist slurs against students, according to an Indian Express report which quoted deputy development commissioner Karn Satyarthi.A video emerged online on Wednesday, August 31, showing a group of students rounding up and beating both the teacher, Suman Singh, and a school clerk, who were tied to a tree. The incident took place on August 29 under the limits of the Gopikandar police station area. The students belong to a government-run Scheduled Tribe Residential School.According to Satyarthi – who is also the project director of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency in the district – the incident happened at a time when tensions were already high between the teacher and students. There had been issues between Suman Singh and the students for the last four months, he added.The 245 students and another five teachers at the residential school belong to the Pahariya community, categorised under particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG).“Sometime in April, the students were unhappy with the concerned headmaster, Suman Singh, as he used to hurl caste-based expletives. A first information report (FIR) was registered at the instance of the students and we recommended his transfer. However, the headmaster was demoted to a teacher at the same school,” said Satyarthi.The August 29 incident appears to have happened at a time when the matter pertaining to caste-based insults had settled, added Satyarthi.“But on August 29, the teacher was beaten up. Prima facie, there was some issue in the assessment of students. However, we are inquiring about the matter,” he said, adding that no one has been arrested so far in the matter.Citing sources, the Indian Express report said a few students were “indisciplined” and some were “bordering on criminal behaviour”.“We don’t want the students’ academic life to be stained by a case and therefore we are moving with due diligence. However, we will initiate legal action against the students too once the matter is clear and we also plan to transfer some of them to other schools. We have called a parent-teacher meeting and we are trying to understand the reason behind this kind of aggression,” a source said.Also read: Jharkhand: Section 144 in Dumka After Protests Following Death of Woman Set on FireThe August 29 incident came after 11 students of the school out of 32 received Grade-DD, which is considered equivalent to fail, in the Class IX examination, results of which was declared by the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) on Saturday, August 27, according to the police.The students had earlier alleged – according to a PTI report – that the teacher gave them low marks in the practical examination, resulting in them failing the exam. The exam in question is said to have both theoretical and practical components. While the practical component is assessed by the school, the theoretical aspects are evaluated by the JAC, which also declared the final result. Meanwhile, the clerk, Soneram Chaure, came under the students’ assault because he was allegedly responsible for uploading the marks online on the JAC’s website.“No FIR has been lodged in the case, as school management did not give any written complaint about the incident. After verification of the incident, I asked the school authority to lodge a complaint but it refused saying that if might spoil the careers of the students,” Gopikandar police station in-charge Nityanand Bhokta had told news agency PTI.Gopikandar block development officer (BDO) Anant Jha, who had also gone to the school with Bhokta for the investigation, said there were 200 students in the residential school and the majority of the students were involved in the incident.“The victim teacher was earlier headmaster of the school but later he was removed for reasons not known. It might be a case of rivalry among teachers. To maintain law and order of the school, classes for Class IX and Class X have been suspended for two days and students were sent back to their homes,” he had said.“The school management, however, failed to show the marks of practical examinations and date on which the marks were uploaded online. It is still not clear whether the students failed in theory paper or practical. Prima facie it seems, the students took the action only on a rumour,” he had said.(With PTI inputs)