A 15-year-old student was found hanging from the ceiling of an under-construction hostel building in Nabalpur, Sarlahi, on Monday, said Sarlahi district police.

The eighth-grader at a Nabalpur-based private school was rushed to Namuna Hospital, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

Family and relatives of the deceased alleged that the student died due to the negligence of the school administration.

“The teachers used to severely beat my son time and again in the name of discipline. Even the class monitor would thrash him. My son died due to the negligence of the school,” said Asmin Kumar Chaudhary, the deceased’s father. He also claimed that a teacher had meted out severe punishment to him a few days ago. “A teacher removed his clothes and thrashed him in front of his friends,” said Chaudhary.

The deceased, who is a resident of Gaushala in Mahottari district, was a hostel student at the school. According to the school administration, students and staff removed the bed sheet that he had used to hang himself and rushed him to the hospital.

Meanwhile, the school has denied any wrongdoing. Sudip Karki, the school principal, claimed that the deceased student was stressed after his parents had come to visit him at the school a few days ago.

“His parents came to the school on Monday. We had complained against him for repeatedly breaking the school’s rules and regulations, and his mother had berated him,” said Karki. He, however, admitted that the student was beaten by the hostel warden for creating a nuisance in the hostel. “He claimed to have seen a ghost in the hostel and was scaring other students with his stories.”

Superintendent of Police Bishwamani Pokharel in Sarlahi said a detailed investigation into the death of the student is underway.

“We are waiting for the post-mortem report to confirm his nature of death,” he said.

Police handed over the body to the bereaved family on Tuesday. There are around 1,500 students in the school in the current academic year. Among them, nearly 400 students are staying in the school hostel.