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Teacher stabbed to death in Chennai, stalker arrested
A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said that the 30-year-old accused, identified as Madan Kumar, entered the victim’s school when the gate was open. There was no security present at the premises.
Chennai: A 25-year-old teacher was stabbed to death by her former boyfriend at a government school in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, a day after her father turned down the accused’s marriage proposal, police said, adding that the accused has been arrested.
A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said that the 30-year-old accused, identified as Madan Kumar, entered the victim’s school when the gate was open. There was no security present at the premises.
He then asked one of the students where the teacher was, who directed him towards the staff room. The accused met her there, spoke for a few minutes before suddenly stabbing her in the stomach and neck multiple times, the officer said. He then fled from the spot immediately.
The teachers at the school informed the police and called for an ambulance. However, the teacher died before reaching the Pudukkottai government hospital where she was declared her dead.
Madan was arrested by the Sethubavachathiram police in half an hour’s time from around the school and registered a case of murder.
The victim had been working as a temporary Tamil teacher for classes 6 to 9 for the past six months at the Mallipattinam Government Higher Secondary School. She and the accused both hail from Chinnamanai village.
“Preliminary investigations show that the victim and Madan had been together for one-and-a-half years,” the officer said. “But, she had recently given up on their relationship because her parents didn’t want them to be together.”
On November 19, Madan’s father, Pannersevlam, met the victim’s father at around 4pm to consider their marriage but the latter refused. “Madan was enraged by this and stabbed her around 10.15am on Wednesday,” the official said. “He told us that he wanted to die by suicide after murdering her.”
We didn’t see him stab her, we only saw her collapse,” Manjula, a teacher at the school, said.
A video emerged from the school showing a group of students and locals carrying the severely injured and unconscious victim towards the ambulance.
Following the incident, school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi instructed the district collector to offer counselling for the students and declare a holiday for the day.
Later in the day, Tanjavur superintendent of police Ashish Rawat visited the school along with his team.
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Wednesday announced ₹5 lakh ex gratia for the next of kin from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief funds. “It was shocking and painful after learning about the unfortunate incident in Mallipattinam Government School, Thanjavur. Condolences to the Teacher Ramani’s family. It is a brutal incident where the teacher was hacked to death. The accused was arrested immediately and this case would be given more focus, ensuring that the accused get maximum punishment as per law,” MK Stalin said in a statement.
