The team is likely to submit its report on Monday. But in New Delhi, Ashok Agarwal, an advocate and one of the members of the team, told The Indian Express that the caning by principal Sunirmal Chakravarthy drove the Class VIII student of La Martiniere School to suicide. In his personal diary, Rouvanjit mentioned about the incident. “He had written that he was upset and felt helpless and without any support,” said Agarwal. “This is what drove him to suicide.”

The team also got to know that caning and slapping and calling students “funny names” were a norm in at the school. “The students disclosed that they were frequently beaten. In fact, they never realised that they were going through torture,” said Agarwal. “They thought it was normal to get beaten up.”

The state government had issued circulars in 2000, 2005 and 2009 against corporal punishment but attempts have not been adequate to put a stop to it.

This time, the authority the government is planning will have jurisdiction over all schools in the state including the ones affiliated to other boards, said state School Education Minister Partha De. In fact, “the institution will wield significant powers to de-recognize any institution,” he said.

De said though minority institutions have a right to administer these as per their will, the Right to Education Act, 2010, allows the state government an authority to an “umbrella body” to scrutinise schools affiliated to the state government as well as others.

In the new authority, 50 per cent members will be women and will comprise teachers, academicians and social workers. The body will be headed by the school education minister himself and the complainants need not disclose their identity.

The minister also invited the representatives of other boards like CBSE and ICSE to join the body. He said since these boards do not have a control over day-to-day activities of the school, their representatives should be part of the proposed institution.

The Detective Department of Kolkata Police, meanwhile, began its investigation on Friday.

Damayanti Sen, DC, DD said, “Today, we did not interrogate. But if needed, we will question everybody related to the case, including the principal of the school and other teachers.”

The DD took over the case yesterday form Shakespeare police station following a recent visit by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, which found that “all was not well in the school and that corporal punishment was still practised there”.

The state government said it would give full support to all the three agencies looking into the complaint of father of Rouvanjit Rawla. The agencies looking into the matter are Kolkata police, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and National Commission for Minority Education.

In 2007, the state government had passed a Bill in the state Assembly on setting up a School Disputes and Adjudication Commission to control the activities of private schools which are awaiting approval from the President. Until the Bill is passed, the new body will wield its sticks over private English-medium schools in the state.