A father forced his daughter to beg on streets for not studying well, another girl committed suicide as a question paper leak led to an exam being rescheduled and a school-going boy was brutally murdered - the week began on a horrible note for students in Karnataka.
The bizarre way of disciplining the 13-year-old class 7 student took place in Mysore, 130 km from Bengaluru, while the body of a class 12 student was found hanging from a ceiling fan of her hostel room in Davangere, about 260 km from Bengaluru.
The brutal murder of the boy, studying in class 8, happened in Bangalore. The naked body of the boy bore eight stab wounds.
In the Mysore incident that took place on Monday a man identified by police as Prakash, working as a technician in a city hospital, sat in a car belonging to his friend opposite the temple where he watched his daughter beg.
The incident would have gone unnoticed if the girl was not in her school uniform, police said.
Visitors to the temple were surprised to see a girl in school uniform begging and some questioned her persuading her to tell her story, police said.
Prakash was arrested and later released by a Mysore court on bail. The girl was taken to a government shelter home.
On Tuesday an official of the shelter home accompanied her to the school to sit for exams.
Though the girl has expressed her desire to go back to her father, this will be done only after counselling both and once the authorities of the government home are satisfied, police said.
In Davangere, the body of Neetu Umapati, was found hanging from a ceiling fan of her hostel room on Tuesday.
Police said her classmates told them that apparently she took her life as she had become nervous after the rescheduling of the mathematics examination following a question paper leak.
The class 12 students in the state have been having a hard time this year as question papers of at least three subjects have been leaked forcing rescheduling of the exams.
The death of Neetu was raised in the assembly on Tuesday but Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said police had informed him that the suicide had nothing to do with the postponement of the examination.
He, however, expressed anguish over the death and urged students and their parents not to get agitated over question paper leaks and rescheduling of examinations.
In Bengaluru, the body of class 8 student E. Abhishek was found on Tuesday with eight stab wounds, police said.
The murder was committed on Monday evening, they said adding that they are questioning four boys of his age-group as he was last found talking to them.