Teasing over comp theft forces student to end life

Jayakumar, a plus two student of Vilampatti village in Dindigul district, about 425 km from here, immolated himself around midnight on Monday, after he was teased for being questioned by police over the theft of computers from the local State-run school. A special school run for the OBC Kallar community students at Vilampatti had recently complained that six computers from its premises had gone missing, police sources told Deccan Herald.

On suspicion, Jayakumar was asked to come to the local police station for questioning and was let off at day-break, sources said. But on Monday, after the school reopened after the ‘Pooja’ holidays, his peer group boys teased him as word of Jayakumar having been called to the police station went around.

The theft case is being investigated, police said. But unable to bear the ‘misimpression’ created about him, the boy took recourse to this extreme step. Jayakumar, son of a lorry driver, on Monday night doused himself with kerosene and set himself ablaze at his home.  Jayakumar was taken to the Dingidul Government Hospital early on Tuesday, but he succumbed to burns there.