A 17-year-old student has died after succumbing to his injuries sustained during a fight with his schoolmates in a government school in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district. The student, Selvasurya got into an altercation with three other students on April 25, who questioned him for wearing a coloured thread on his wrist denoting his caste, according to his mother’s statement in the FIR. The fight escalated with the victim and one of the accused throwing stones at each other, according to the police, and the boy was injured on his head. He was hospitalised in the evening on April 25, and died on Saturday, April 30.
The incident happened at the Pallakkal Pothukudi Government Higher Secondary School near Ambasamuthiram in Tirunelveli, where the victim was studying in class 11. Selvasurya was from the Thevar community, classified as an Other Backward Class (OBC) in Tamil Nadu. Of the three boys who were identified as the accused, one is from a Scheduled Caste (SC) and the other two are Muslims. A case has been registered against all three of them under sections 294(b) (obscene acts and songs), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 506(ii) (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 302 (punishment for murder) of the IPC. All three students have been arrested.
“A verbal altercation between a student studying in 11th standard and one in 12th standard escalated with both of them pelting stones at each other,” said Francis L, the DSP of Ambasamuthiram. “One of the stones hit Selvasurya’s ear. While it seemed to be a minor laceration in the beginning, he appears to have sustained internal injuries. Later, on the evening of the fight, the boy complained of dizziness and was taken to a nearby government hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries this morning (April 30),” he said.
According to the FIR, Selvasurya’s mother said that her son was accosted by the three accused students near the bathroom for wearing a coloured thread on his wrist. When Selvasurya questioned them for accosting him, one of the three boys allegedly took a stone and hit the victim on the head, near his left ear.
Speaking to TNM, Tirunelveli Chief Education Officer Titus said that two physical education teachers B Tamilselvam and A Sheeba Backiamary have been suspended from duty in this regard. “The incident took place inside the school campus during interval, and action has been taken against the teachers. A police complaint was filed on the day of the incident and police investigation is underway,” he said.