Bengaluru: Raunak not first victim of bullying at Baldwin

Bengaluru: While the city is still coming to terms with the death of Raunak Banerjee, 14, who jumped to his death from the 10th floor of his apartment complex last week because he was bullied by his classmates, it appears he was not the only one to have been bullied at the elite Baldwin Boys' High School in the city.

His siter, Sreetama, reveals that another student left the school last year because he could'nt take the bullying. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, she said the boy, who came to meet the family on Sunday, told them he had to leave Baldwin last year because he could'nt tolerate the bullying.

Another of Raunak's sisters, Dyuti Banerjee has since launched an online drive against bullying to spread awareness and make sure no other child suffers a similar fate because of it.

Describing her brother as soft hearted and good natured, she wrote he had admitted in his suicide note that he could'ny take the bullying by a group of boys in his school anymore. "I lost a brother because the system doesn't care to protect school children from mental, emotional and physical torture. But no other kid should be lost to this social evil," she stressed in her online petition.

Going by the police, the boy who allegedly bullied Raunak in the school van while returning home the day he took his life, has not yet been identified. "We only know thet he was his classmate," said DCP (South) S. D. Sharanappa.

The Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has meanwhile issued a notice to the school seeking an explanation on the suicide and given it a week to respond.