A Class X student of a private school in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district was allegedly beaten to death in the classroom by his classmates on March 23, the police said, as per news agency PTI. The father of the 15-year-old boy said he received a call from the principal of the school in the morning, stating that his son had fallen sick. "When I reached the school, I found him unconscious. I immediately took him to Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College and Hospital where doctors declared him dead," he reportedly said.

The CCTV footage showed that three students were beating up the boy around 10:23 am, the police said. All three students involved in the incident have been identified, they said. The principal of the school, who initially told the press that the student fell in the classroom while changing his seat, refused to speak after the police reviewed the CCTV footage.

The police said a thorough investigation is underway in the case that triggered tension among the students, parents and teachers of the well-known English medium school in Dhanbad's Sindri area. The father of the boy alleged that some students had been beating up his son regularly over the last few days. "It is murder and action should be taken against the students involved," he said. The deceased boy's family hails from Odisha and his father is a senior officer at a cement factory in Sindri.