Parents of a 12-year-old girl student of a state-owned residential school in Jharkhand’s Garhwa district have accused the hostel warden of assaulting and forcing her to drink drain water.

The victim has been identified as Kanchan Kumari, a student of Class VII at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Awasiya Vidyalaya in Garhwa’s Dhurki block, over 250km from state capital Ranchi.

Kanchan’s mother Kaushalya Devi lodged a complaint against hostel warden Suman Agarwal at Dhurki police station on Thursday.

“On August 16, my daughter was not feeling well and was sleeping when the warden woke her up at around 4pm and accused her of making a fuss over her health. She beat Kanchan repeatedly with a stick and when she was on the verge of fainting, she was forced to drink water from the nearby drain. We were informed about the incident by the hostel cook,” Kaushalya Devi said in her complaint.

Kanchan’s parents took her to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Angered by the incident, villagers blocked the Dhurki-Nagar Uttari road in Garhwa district for several hours on Friday evening, demanding proper investigation and action against the guilty hostel warden.

However, the hostel warden has denied the allegation as baseless.

“The girl used to scare other students by talking about witches in the school and behaving as if she was possessed by a ghost. Several girls had complained against her. When she was confronted, she pretended to faint. In order to threaten her, other students were asked to bring water from the drain but she was not forced to drink it,” Suman Agarwal said.

Garhwa district deputy commissioner Ramesh Gholap has constituted a three-member committee to probe the incident and submit a report by Saturday.

“It is a serious allegation and I have constituted a three-member team comprising district education officer Mayank Bhushan, Dhurki block development officer Arun Kumar Singh and the executive magistrate to investigate the incident and submit a report by Saturday. We will certainly take action against the guilty,” Gholap said.

Bhushan said prima facie it appeared that the warden had indeed beaten up the student.

“We are looking into the incident but prima facie it appears that the girl student was beaten up by the warden. We will be lodging an FIR against the guilty based on the investigation,” he added.