Delhi student complained of teacher ‘torture’ in last ride before suicide, co-passenger recalls

A 16-year-old student of St Columba’s School in Delhi spent the final minutes of his life in an e-rickshaw — trembling, sobbing, and pleading about “torture by teachers” — before he jumped to his death from the Rajendra Place Metro Station on November 18.

His desperate cries for help have now become a key part of the investigation that led to the suspension of four teachers and the registration of an FIR based on a complaint from his father.

The boy’s emotional collapse during that short ride was witnessed by Deepshika, a 45-year-old homemaker, who was travelling with her younger son and another student when the teenager hurriedly got in outside the school around 2.15 pm.

“He was shaking. The moment he sat down, he started crying uncontrollably and asked the driver to move fast towards RK Ashram Metro Station,” she recalled. When she asked him what was wrong, the boy’s response stunned her: “Aunty, please remove your child from this school. I made a huge mistake by taking admission here.”

His distress only heightened as he spoke of constant pressure and alleged harassment. According to her, he said he was in Class 10 and “just 10 days away from the board exams” but claimed his teachers were “torturing” him throughout the year.

For “every small issue”, he told her, teachers would insist that his parents visit the school - even though his father worked out of state.

“Crying, he said: ‘Will my parents do their jobs or keep coming to school?’ He named four teachers,” she said.

Deepshika tried to console him, reminding him that school life would not always be defined by a few teachers. But her words did little to calm him. When her younger son asked him something about the teachers, the boy broke down louder.

She got off at Gole Market — still two stations before where the teenager would get down — and remembers seeing him crying in the backseat. After learning he had no cash, she handed him a ₹10 note for the ride. “He thanked me softly,” she said. “If I had even imagined what was going to happen, I would have taken his parents’ number and called them right away.”

Roughly half an hour later, around 2.45 pm, the boy jumped from the platform of Rajendra Place Metro Station to the road below.

As the incident triggered shock across the Capital, St Columba’s suspended four teachers on November 21, pending inquiry. Police are investigating the allegations made by the family and the circumstances leading up to the boy’s death.

For Deepshika, the short journey has now become a memory she cannot shake off — a few minutes that, in hindsight, carried the weight of a young life in crisis.

“His eyes were full of fear and pain,” she said. “I wish someone had noticed sooner.”