Tamil Nadu girl suicide: CM Stalin assures strict action against 'guilty'

Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday gave an assurance to the family of a 16-year-old girl, who allegedly died by suicide by jumping from the third floor of her hostel building, that the “guilty” in the case will be punished.

The girl’s mother and her family members met Stalin at the Secretariat here and demanded that her daughter be served justice. The meeting came a day after the Madras High Court granted bail to four of the five persons arrested in connection with the case.

“I demanded that action should be taken against the guilty. The Chief Minister assured me that the law will take its own course. He said the guilty will not be spared,” the mother told reporters. The meeting also assumes significance in the wake of doctors from the prestigious JIPMER in Puducherry submitting a report to the court after analysing the autopsy reports.

The 16-year-old student, who belonged to the neighbouring Cuddalore district, was staying in the school hostel in Kallakurichi, and allegedly jumped to death on July 12. However, the family alleged foul play in the death and demanded action against the school management citing the girl’s suicide note in which she blamed two teachers for “torturing her” and the postmortem report which spoke of injury marks in her body.

The death of the girl, who is also believed to have named two teachers in her suicide note, also triggered violence after hundreds of students and locals converged outside the school campus at around 10 am on July 17 and entered the premises forcibly by overpowering the police, who were outnumbered till additional personnel joined in quelling protests.

Television footage showed protesters pushing down barricades, entering the school premises, setting buses parked on fire, and vandalising school name boards – some were seen taking away the furniture as police looked on helplessly.