2 more teachers held for Tamil Nadu girl’s death, kin allege torture

On July 13 morning, the class 12 student from Periyanesalur village in Cuddalore district studying in the private residential school in adjacent Kallakurichi district was found dead in the hostel.

Two teachers were arrested on Monday for allegedly abetting death by suicide of a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district, a day after protesters burnt school buses and damaged property. Police had arrested the school’s principal and secretary on Sunday.

The girl had jumped from her hostel room on the third floor, school authorities and police had said. (ANI Photo)

Following the violent protests, police had also arrested two AIADMK functionaries working in the party’s IT wing, and 100 protesters. The state government will also set up a special investigation team, as ordered by the Madras high court on Monday.

“A total of 278 people related to the violence have been arrested,” highways and public works minister E V Velu said. “There will be more arrests.” Velu accompanied school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi to inspect the vandalised school on Monday.

On July 13 morning, the class 12 student from Periyanesalur village in Cuddalore district studying in the private residential school in adjacent Kallakurichi district was found dead in the hostel. Her family and relatives have alleged foul play, refusing to take her body for last rites.

The girl had jumped from her hostel room on the third floor, school authorities and police had said. Her parents alleged that she was tortured by teachers.

The Madras high court on Monday accepted the father’s plea to conduct another autopsy. A post-mortem conducted on July 14 said she appeared to have died of haemorrhage and shock due to multiple injuries. HT has seen the post mortem report.

Police has registered a case of suspicious death and started a probe. The girl’s family and relatives have been protesting outside the school and the government hospital in Kallakurichi, where the first autopsy was conducted.

A suicide note was purportedly found in the girl’s room naming two teachers, but her mother said that it was not her daughter’s handwriting. The suicide note was planted, her mother said in a video circulated on Sunday.

In the suicide note, the girl had accused math teacher J Krithiga, who is also the hostel warden, and chemistry teacher P Haripriya for harassing her.

The teachers were arrested on the charge of abetment to suicide, Velu said on Monday. Police have so far ruled out caste being the reason for the alleged harassment, but said the girl’s family was from a marginalized section of society.

The girl’s mother said her daughter was studying in this school from class 6 and they requested a transfer certificate when she was in class 11 because of the harassment, which was not granted.

“So on July 1, I enrolled her in the school hostel when she entered class 12, as school said it would improve her academically,” she said. “On July 13 at 6.30am, I got a call to come to Kallakurichi hospital, saying my daughter is alive. In half an hour, they called again to say she was dead.”

“The doctors in the hospital said that she was brought dead. We saw her. Her hands and legs and face were fine but there was blood only on her head. How could she have bled so much falling from the third flood? The warden, principal, nobody came to meet us,” she alleged.

The family was not shown any CCTV footage they requested, the girl’s mother said.

The family was protesting peacefully and they are unaware how it turned violent, the mother said. She insisted that her daughter should justice. The school’s secretary, Shanthi Ravikumar, had earlier on Sunday uploaded a video on the school’s Facebook page, blaming the mother for the riots on Sunday. She has since been arrested.

“We have cooperated with police. We have also given the video footage of the day when the incident happened,” the secretary said. “We were in police custody so we couldn’t meet her (mother).”

She blamed the mother for spreading fake news leading to the violence and said the school has been functioning since 1998 and their students have gone on to become doctors and government officials. She insisted that the school had no role in the girl’s death. “The mother is responsible for this violence,” Ravikumar said. “She has spoiled the lives of 3,500 students.”

On Sunday, a mob stormed into the campus in Kaniyamoor near Chinna Salem in Kallakurichi around 10am. School buses were burnt, and property was damaged. Protestors were seen pelting stones and 52 policemen were injured, including Kallakurichi’s superintendent of police S Selvakumar and deputy inspector general of police M Pandian. police fired tear gas to disperse the mob.

Home secretary Phanindra Reddy, who visited the spot on the orders of chief minister MK Stalin, held a press conference on Sunday to say that the government is firm to clear all suspicions been raised in the case. “We will investigate from all angles and come to the right conclusion,” Reddy said. “We request you not to believe rumours and maintain public peace.”

AIADMK interim general secretary and former chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami accused the DMK government of being “lethargic” and said it should be ashamed of itself for failing to react earlier. “It is due to lethargic response of the government that violence broke out in the aftermath of the suicide,” he said, adding that the unrest could have been averted if timely action was taken.

Chief minister Stalin expressed agony over the violence in Kallakurichi and said violence is against development and warned of stringent action against those who disturbed the peace.

“Educational institutions should regard each and every student as its own pupil while imparting education. I warn that stringent action would be taken if they are found to go against the law,” Stalin said in an address via videoconference on Tamil Nadu Day celebrations.