---
title: "A six-year-old dies in Andhra Pradesh after a video shows a teacher striking him"
description: "Police in Visakhapatnam have registered a case of causing death by negligence after a boy collapsed in his classroom. The cause of death has not been established and awaits post-mortem reports. The state education minister has ordered an investigation."
category: "World"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world
author: "Aisha Carter"
published: 2026-08-22T01:39:51.000Z
updated: 2026-08-22T01:39:51.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/a-six-year-old-dies-in-andhra-pradesh-after-a-video-shows-a-teacher-striking-him
tags: ["india", "andhra-pradesh", "education", "corporal-punishment", "police"]
---
# A six-year-old dies in Andhra Pradesh after a video shows a teacher striking him

Police in Visakhapatnam have registered a case of causing death by negligence after a boy collapsed in his classroom. The cause of death has not been established and awaits post-mortem reports. The state education minister has ordered an investigation.

A six-year-old boy has died in Visakhapatnam, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, after collapsing in his classroom. [Video circulating this week shows a teacher holding a child by his clothes and slapping him on the face, after which he collapses](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/outrage-in-india-over-death-of-six-year-old-slapped-by-his-teacher). Local media have named the boy as Pranay Tej.

The cause of death has not been determined. That point needs to sit near the top rather than at the bottom, because the video and the death have been widely presented as a single established sequence, and at this stage they are two facts and an allegation about the connection between them.

## What police have said

Inspector Pudi Vara Prasad said that [ "following a written complaint from the boy's father, we have registered a case under Section 194 of the BNSS"](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/outrage-in-india-over-death-of-six-year-old-slapped-by-his-teacher), a provision of India's criminal procedure code dealing with inquiries into deaths.

He said the body was released after post-mortem procedures, and that [ "once all relevant reports are received, we will determine the exact cause of death"](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/outrage-in-india-over-death-of-six-year-old-slapped-by-his-teacher). No arrest has been announced. The teacher has not been publicly named.

The boy's father said his son [appeared healthy in the morning](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/outrage-in-india-over-death-of-six-year-old-slapped-by-his-teacher) and had wanted to go to school.

## The official response

Nara Lokesh, the state education minister, said [ "corporal punishment has no place in our schools. No child should ever be subjected to violence in the name of discipline"](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/outrage-in-india-over-death-of-six-year-old-slapped-by-his-teacher), and ordered a full investigation, appointing a committee.

## The law, and the gap beneath it

Corporal punishment in Indian schools is prohibited. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act bars physical punishment and mental harassment of pupils, and has done since 2009.

The prohibition is not the difficulty. Enforcement is. [A 2018 study cited in reporting on this case found around 80 percent of low-income schoolchildren in India experience physical punishment from teachers despite the ban](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/outrage-in-india-over-death-of-six-year-old-slapped-by-his-teacher).

A figure at that scale describes something other than isolated misconduct. It describes a practice that persists because it is normalised, rarely reported, and seldom penalised, in a system where a complaint typically requires a parent to take on a school their child must continue attending.

## What remains open

Whether the slap caused this boy's death is a medical question that post-mortem reports will address, and it is possible they will not be conclusive. Whether a criminal charge follows will depend on those findings.

What the video establishes, independently of the cause of death, is that a small child was struck by a teacher in a classroom. That is unlawful in India whatever else is eventually determined, and it is the part of this case that does not depend on a report still pending.

## Sources

- [Outrage in India over death of six-year-old 'slapped' by his teacher](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/21/outrage-in-india-over-death-of-six-year-old-slapped-by-his-teacher)