Chennai, Sept 1 (BPNS)

The Madras High Court single bench judge, Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan has in an order passed recently said that teachers cannot be booked for abetment of suicide of students merely because they had asked the concerned student to study well.

The observation of the single bench judge came while granting bail to all the five accused in the suicide death of a 17-year-old Plus Two student at Kallakurichi on July 13, 2022. The court observed that prima facie, it was a clear case of suicide and added that there was no evidence to show that the girl was gang raped or tortured as alleged by her parents.

The single bench judge said that it was ‘unfortunate’ that teachers could be booked by the police for merely asking a student to study well. The court went through two postmortem reports submitted by the local police as also the content of the suicide note allegedly left behind by the deceased girl.

It is to be noted that the death of the plus two student had led to major arson and violence at Kallakurichi leading to the torching of 30 school buses and police vehicles.

The parents of the girl had registered a complaint with the police alleging foul play and alleged that their daughter had likely been raped before her death.

Five persons including two teachers, school principal, school management correspondent, and school secretary were arrested and remanded to judicial custody.

The petitioners argued that they had no role in the suicide of the 17-year-old girl and denied allegations of rape and torture in their bail application moved in the Madras High Court.

The court also expressed its regret at the death of a student by suicide for facing difficulties in her studies and said, “It should not happen in the future”.