Chennai: In line with the Madras High Court order, the parents
of 12th standard girl student, who had jumped to death at a private residential school leading to largescale violence in Kallakurichi taluk on Sunday last, received her body and it was laid to rest amid tight security, today.
Tens and hundreds of people bid a tearful adieu as the body of Srimathi was
laid to rest at her native Periyanesalur village in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.
Earlier, the girl’s parents received the body at the Kallakurichi Government
Hospital at 0700 hrs this morning as per the court order and brought to her
residence in Cuddalore district where a large number of people, including
State Ministers, district officials, and representatives of various political parties paid their last respects.
Later, her body was taken in a procession and laid to rest in a crematorium.
The girl’s mysterious death triggered protests with a large number of people
staging a road blockade on the Salem-Chennai highway demanding justice for her and action against the school management.
The four-day-long protest turned violent on Sunday last when the agitators,
breached the police barricades, pelted stones at the police stormed the
the private residential school campus, and indulged in arson and rioting after police resorted to lathicharge to disperse them.
Police had also fired two rounds in the air but it did not have any desired
effect as the protestors, who assembled in large numbers through a
WhatsApp groups demanding justice to her outnumbered the police
personnel.
A number of school buses parked on the campus and some police vehicles
were set on fire and the office rooms in the school were vandalized and
window panes were damaged.
Tamil Nadu DGP C.Sylendra Babu, who visited the spot along with the
State Home Secretary, ordered a CB-CID probe into the girl’s death.
After Chief Minister M.K.Stalin reviewed the situation, the State government
transferred the Kallkurichi District Collector and the Superintendent of Police
following the violence.
In the meantime, the parents refused to accept the body and moved the
Madras High Court demanding that a second post-mortem should be
conducted.
The court allowed it and formed a four-member team of doctors, including
a forensic expert to do the second post-mortem and that the entire process
should be videographed.
The Court, however, rejected yet another plea by the parents that a doctor
of their choice should be present during the second autopsy.
The parents then filed a petition in the Supreme Court pressing their demand to which the Court sought to know whether they did not have faith in the judiciary and said they could approach the High Court on the issue.
Submitting the copies of the Apex Court order, the parents filed yet another
plea in the High Court yesterday seeking a third post-mortem in the presence of a doctor of their choice.
The Court, while rejecting the plea, held that the Supreme Court had not passed any direction to bar the re-post mortem with the expert of doctors nominated by the High Court.
The High Court constituted a team of experts from JIPMER Puducherry to review, verify and study both the autopsy reports and directed the parents to collect the body and posted the case on July 29.
The Court directed the experts’ team to analyze the videographers of the two post-mortems and the two post-mortem certificates and give its final opinion to the Villuppuram Chief Judicial Magistrate in a sealed cover within a month.
The court while allowing the villagers, locals, and family members to pay their homage to the body of the girl said no outsiders should be allowed and that the last rites should be held in a peaceful manner.
Following this, the parents agreed to receive the body and it was handed over to the family today morning. From Kallakurichi government hospital, the body was brought to the girl’s native village, where after public homage was laid to rest amid tight security, ending the ten-day-long impasse ever since the girl jumped to death from the third floor of her hostel on July 13.
