The headmaster of New Farakka High School, Monirul Islam, was allegedly beaten up allegedly by a teacher of the school who is also a Trinamool leader, and some other colleagues at Farakka in Murshidabad on Friday evening.

The attackers left him with a fractured leg and other injuries following a dispute over the class routine. Islam, who lost consciousness after the attack, was rushed to Farakka block hospital for treatment. As his injuries were severe, he was later transferred to the Malda Medical College and Hospital.

The incident happened on Friday evening at the New Farakka High School, co-educational institution with classes from V to XII with 3,000 students.

Sources said that three assistant teachers, allegedly led by assistant teacher and state vice-president of the Trinamool education cell, Tarif Hossain, had been holding a meeting with Islam in his chamber over the class routine when the talks became heated.

Islam, from the hospital bed, said an altercation ensued between him and the teachers, ending with him getting severely beaten up by Hossain and others.

“Around 4pm (on Friday), Hossain and three other teachers came to my office, along with the school's managing committee president Arunmoy Das, to discuss academic matters. During the discussion on class routine, there was an altercation. Hossain knocked me off my seat and hit my left leg with a chair. They (the teachers) also punched me in the face and used a sharp object to attack me in the back. I fell unconscious,” Islam said from the hospital.

According to a teacher of the school, Islam was not on good terms with Hossain since 2019 when the former was appointed as the headmaster.

“Hossain used to take undue favours using his political clout, but after Islam became the headmaster of the school, he stopped all that and tried to impose discipline. Hossain and his group had tried to heckle the headmaster in the past as well. But what happened on Friday was beyond anybody's expectations,” an assistant teacher said.

Das, the school's managing committee president, said: “They attacked him (the headmaster) in front of me. This is shameful. I tried to stop them but they overpowered me."

He added: "I cannot accept this and so I have sent in my resignation to the local MLA.”

Contacted, Hossain refuted these charges, claiming that the headmaster got injured accidentally as he fell while apparently trying to attack Hossain and his colleagues.

"These claims are baseless. We did not assault anyone. The headmaster got agitated during the discussion and tried to hit us with a chair. He accidentally fell and injured himself," Hossain claimed.

Farakka SDPO Aminul Islam Khan said that the injured headmaster filed a written complaint against four persons with Farakka police.

"The police have already started investigating, and if allegations are proven true, legal action will be taken," the SDPO said.