A 12-year-old boy died by allegedly consuming pesticide on Thursday evening, after he was accused of “stealing” a packet of chips from a store and made to do sit-ups by the shopkeeper at Gosainber area of Panskura in Paschim Medinipur district, a police officer said on Friday.

The boy studied at a local school in the area. Following his death, no formal complaint was lodged. The police, however, took cognisance of the matter and suo moto registered a complaint of unnatural death, initiating an investigation.

According to the police, Shuvankar Dikshit, the owner of a sweet shop in Panskura, claimed that three packets of chips blew out of his shop due to the wind. The boy who happened to be passing by, saw those and picked up the packets.

Dikshit confronted the boy, scolded him and forced him to apologise publicly by holding his ears and squatting as well as was made to pay Rupees 15 for the chips packets.

After learning about the incident, boy’s mother also scolded him and slapped him, the police said. Following this, the boy allegedly consumed the pesticide. He was rushed to the local hospital, but died soon afterwards.

According to his family, the boy also wrote a note where he mentioned, “Ma… I did not steal.”

A senior police officer said, “Dikshit is also local civic volunteer. After the incident, he fled away. We sent the body for postmortem and filed any complaint of unnatural death and started investigation.”