A 10-year-old student of government primary school at Basanti, West Bengal, succumbed to his injuries after being hit on the head by his teacher.
The teacher, Champa Mondal, is said to have hit the boy, Bapi Joardar, after being enraged over his alleged misbehaviour.
The teacher allegedly banged the child's head on a wall and slapped him with his books.
Bapi's mother came to know of the incident when his son came home complaining of a severe headache and started vomiting.
"It was only when he had a severe headache that my younger son, Nabakishore, who is a Class 1 student in the same school, told me about the incident," Sunita Joardar, Bapi's mother, told the Indian Express.
Bapi was rushed to the Canning Government Hospital from there he was shifted to Chittaranjan Hospital. As his condition started deteriorating, he was referred to SSKM (Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital) where he finally succumbed to his fatal injuries.
A CT scan showed that Bapi had suffered excessive internal bleeding from the head injury.
"When the boy came to us the head injury had worsened. Despite our best efforts, he died around 4am on Friday. The body is being sent for post-mortem," SSKM medical superintendent Tamal Ghosh was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
Shocked at the cruel incident, the boy's mother lamented, "I do not understand how a teacher, a woman at that, can be so cruel to a small child." Champa Mondal, the accused, is a mother of two.
Soon after the boy's death was reported, angry locals gathered in front of Basanti police station where the teacher was being interrogated.
Meanwhile, state Education Minister Bratya Basu condemned the incident and assured that strict measures would be taken against the accused teacher.