Teacher involved in beating up students arrested

The Pakke-Kessang police have arrested Sadhvi Devkriti alias Mataji, who is accused of having inflicted severe injuries on students of Acharyakulam, a primary school run by the Patajanli Ayurveda Pvt Ltd here in Pakke-Kessang district.

Sadhvi Devkriti, a Sanskrit teacher, was absconding after the police had registered a case against her on 10 December at the police station here.

A video of children with severe injury marks inflicted by the teacher surfaced on social media on 7 December, leading to massive outrage among the people of the state. Later, it emerged that the teacher was Sadhvi Devkriti.

Briefing the media, Pakke-Kessang SP Tasi Darang informed that the police “forced her to come from Uttar Pradesh, where she belongs and where she was hiding.”

“Using police tactics, she was forced back from UP and, after coming back to Tezpur, Assam, she was detained by the Pakke-Kessang district police and subsequently arrested,” he said.

Earlier, after preliminary investigation, a case (u/s 342/323 IPC, r/w Section 75 of the JJ Act) was registered on the 10th of this month against her, the SP said.

Initial investigation had revealed that 20 children of Classes 1 and 3 were severely beaten up by Sadhvi Devkriti, causing deep injuries to them.

“We received a complaint on 7 December from one parent. However, during our investigation, it emerged that more than 20 students were her victims. Accordingly, we registered a case and started an investigation. This is a very sensitive case and everyone wanted early arrest of the accused,” the SP added.

Acharyakulam, a primary school, was established two years ago by the Patanjali Group. On its Facebook page, the school describes itself as “an educational institute with the mission to impart Vedic as well as modern education simultaneously.”