Noida: A teacher at a private school, accused of negligence by the mother of a Class VI student who died last Sept, was granted anticipatory bail by an additional sessions court on Monday.The case was registered against the teacher and the school administration under BNS Section 357 (breach of a contract to attend to or supply the wants of a helpless person) and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act (cruelty to a child) after an FIR was filed at Sector 20 police station by the student’s mother. The offences carried a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment.According to the complainant, her daughter had left for school on Sept 4, 2025, in good health. But around 11.30 am, she received a call from the class teacher informing her that the girl had fainted at school and was being taken to a hospital. By the time the family reached the hospital, the child had been declared dead.According to the child’s mother, the school had initially said the child choked on food, while later accounts described her as having fainted near a washroom or staircase. The mother accused the principal, school management and others of negligence in handling the emergency.The family said a forensic viscera report, part of the chargesheet filed in April, stated a benzodiazepine-class sedative was detected in samples taken from the child’s body, along with human blood on a vaginal swab and degraded blood traces on other genital swabs. The sedative was detected in samples from the stomach, intestine, liver, kidney, spleen and blood, according to the report. The viscera examination was conducted last year after the samples were sent to the forensic laboratory in Sept.Benzodiazepines are prescription drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, seizures and certain sleep disorders; doctors note that safe dosages for children are considerably lower than for adults, and excessive amounts can be dangerous.The report, however, did not find sperm or semen and also ruled out other chemical toxins. The report did not establish whether the blood found on the vaginal swab matched the girl’s own blood, leaving the finding open to further examination.Counsel for the applicant, Raj Kumar Nagar, argued that his client had been falsely implicated. He submitted that a charge sheet had already been filed in the case and that the applicant was not named in the original FIR. He also submitted that the FIR had been registered 19 days after the incident without any explanation for the delay. He added that no specific offence was made out against the applicant, who had no prior criminal record, and sought anticipatory bail on these grounds.After hearing arguments and examining the case records, the court noted that the charge sheet already filed in the matter did not assign any specific role to the accused in the commission of the alleged offence. “No other incriminating documentary or solid oral evidence is available in the case diary with complete details of the offence, such as date, time and place of commission. Therefore, taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of the case, without expressing any opinion on the merits, this court finds sufficient basis for grant of anticipatory bail to the applicant,” the court held.Judge Abhishek Pandey ruled that if the accused appears before the court or is arrested, she will be released on bail after furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of an equal amount.
