Coimbatore, Oct 23:
The Coimbatore city police arrested a teacher on Thursday in connection with the death by suicide of a 16-year-old Dalit student who allegedly faced caste-based harassment at a private school in Peelamedu. The school’s headmaster and two students have also been booked in the case.
The deceased, A Akilan, was studying in Class 11 and lived at AT Colony in Peelamedu with his family. His mother, A Kousalyadevi, lodged a complaint alleging that her son had been subjected to caste-based remarks and taunts over his food choices.
Based on the complaint, the Peelamedu police registered a case against teacher Vijayakumar, 42, headmaster Arun Kumar, 43, and two students. Vijayakumar was arrested, while the police were questioning the headmaster and the two students.
According to the complaint, the teacher had asked students belonging to Scheduled Caste communities in the classroom to enrol for a stipend scheme, and Akilan had signed up for it. The teacher subsequently asked the students how many of them ate beef. After Akilan reportedly answered in the affirmative, some of his classmates allegedly began targeting him with caste-based remarks over his food habits.
The boy’s family alleged that he had complained to the teacher about the harassment but no effective action was taken. The headmaster had also allegedly failed to intervene despite being informed about the issue.
The incident came to light after Akilan’s mother, who works as a domestic worker, returned home for lunch and found the front door locked. She subsequently discovered her son dead and alerted the authorities. The police recovered the body and sent it to the ESI Government Hospital for a postmortem examination.
The case has been registered under Sections 115(2) and 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The police are investigating the allegations of caste-based harassment and the circumstances leading to the student’s death. The allegations against the teacher, headmaster and students are subject to investigation.