TN: Schoolboys framed, say classmates

MADURAI: In a curious twist to an incident in which two school boys were arrested for allegedly threatening a teacher in Virudhunagar district with death, strong hints have emerged that the delinquent students were not guilty of the serious charges levelled against them.Corroborative statements made by one of the boys and his schoolmates puncture the claim of teachers and police that the accused were carrying a knife and had threatened a teacher that he would meet the same fate of Uma Maheshwari, the Chennai school teacher who was stabbed to death inside a classroom.A day after the boys Mari and Guru (both names changed) were arrested, Express on Wednesday interviewed one of them who was lodged at the Borstal School at Melur near here.“Sir, it is true that in a fit of rage I removed my shirt and angrily confronted our English teacher Subramanian sir, after he slapped me and Guru in front of our classmates for not attending the morning assembly prayers. But I never carried a knife or threatened to kill him,” said Mari, who was still wearing his uniform.“I had only dared him to come out of the school. But it was all an emotional outburst because we were singled out although there were other boys who skipped the assembly,” he added.The standard XII agricultural stream student of the Narikudi Marudhupandiyar Government Higher Secondary School near Virudhunagar insisted that while confronting Subramanian he did not make any reference to the Chennai incident. “It is just that we felt humiliated since the girls watched us being slapped,” he said.According to him, only eight students had attended the school prayer session but Subramanian had asked another teacher to reduce 10 marks from the practical examination for him and Guru. Mari alleged that the teacher was very rude with them and the “headmistress Usha madam, who joined the school recently, always acted as per his guidance.”Incidentally, school mates of Mari and Guru supported them. “Most students don’t attend the assembly but the teacher had picked these two for punishment. Mari removed his shirt and confronted Subramanian sir, but nothing beyond that happened,” said a student. “It is true that both were involved in the usual mischief of singing songs and banging benches. But we did not hear them threatening Subramanian sir. If they had done it, then they could have escaped before the police arrived. But they stayed put,” a student claimed.Students also alleged that the police had handled the juveniles in a rough manner. “They caught them by the collar and dragged them into the jeep as if they were criminals,” a student alleged. On their part, the teachers stuck to the theory that the boys were seething with “murderous rage” after being pulled up by the English teacher.