Tamil Nadu police has booked a school principal, a teacher and two students of a government-aided school for abetting the suicide by a Class 11 Dalit student in the Coimbatore district after his parents alleged that he was harassed over his caste and consumption of beef, police said on Friday.
All four accused have been detained, and the principal and the teacher suspended, police said.
The boy was found dead at his residence on October 21 in Peelamedu in Coimbatore. His parents have alleged that he was targeted by his class teacher and two classmates for belonging to the Scheduled Caste and for consuming beef, a police officer said.
“We have lodged a case against the class teacher, school’s principal and two classmates for abetment to suicide under Section 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 (abetment to suicide),” an officer said.
The victim’s father works with a private hotel in Kerala and his mother is a domestic help in Peelamedu locality of Coimbatore.
According to the complaint by the parents, the accused teacher recently asked students from the Scheduled Caste community to stand up in the class and asked whether they consumed beef.
“The boy admitted that he consumed beef,” the officer said, quoting the parents’ complaint. The officer added that the confession led to harassment of the victim boy by his classmates.
On Friday, the victim’s father protested outside the Coimbatore district collectorate, demanding justice for this son. “How does it matter to the teacher whether I eat beef or curry. We want justice,” he told reporters.
Allies of the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) also demanded justice for the victim and the arrest of the accused.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol Thirumavalavan said, “Let us all raise our voice for justice in relation to the suicide of a student in Coimbatore.”
“All those responsible for the death of the student must be arrested. The government must form the social justice student force in every school”, he said in a party statement on Friday
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president B Manickam Tagore said in the land of social justice, there should not be even the slightest room for such toxic casteist thoughts in educational institutions. “The investigation must be completed quickly to ensure appropriate punishment for everyone involved, he demanded.
CPI (M) state secretary P Shanmugam said a teacher, who should be teaching that “all lives are born equal”, has humiliated the student on the basis of his caste. He claimed that even after a complaint was lodged against the teacher, the headmaster failed to intervene.