Chennai: SRM group booked for student's death

Chennai: The city police on Saturday booked the management of SRM Nightingale Matriculation Higher Secondary School on charges of causing death due to negligence in connection with the Friday incident of a class 4 girl student leaping to death from the terrace of the four-storey school building.

However, none was arrested since the investigations are underway to determine the cause of suicide and to establish the liability of the school. Two notes purportedly written by the deceased, Loga Mithra, (9), were recovered by the Ashok Nagar Police.

She jumped off terrace of the school building.

“ Three sentences, I love you mummy, I cried mummy and It is an (on) school, figured in one of the notes. The other note was more like a thank you note to all her friends, scribbled in large fonts. These were the last two things the girl had written before she left the classroom,” said a senior police officer privy to the investigation.

DC has access to the purported notes. Preliminary investigations revealed that the school which usually kept the terrace door closed had left it open for maintenance work on Friday. The workers had left for lunch leaving the door open unaware of the danger.

“Had they closed the door, the child wouldn’t have had access to the terrace, and the whole incident could have been averted. It is the liability of the school to ensure the students’ safety. Therefore, we have invoked section 304A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” observed a senior police officer.

Sources said Loga Mithra and her two classmates, used the restroom on third floor at around 2.30 pm on Friday. Though the other two girls suggested Loga Mithra that they go to their classroom located on the same floor, she had told them that she needed sometime alone before returning to the class.

She went to the terrace and scaled the 1.5 ft parapet wall, and leaped down. Her fall was stalled by a tree but soon the branch she was clinging on to snapped under her weight. She was admitted to SIMS Hospital, Vadapalani, where she succumbed to the injuries at around 8.30 pm.

T. Nagar DCP P. Saravanan and Ashok Nagar ACP G. Harikumar conducted spot investigations. Chennai district Chief Educational Officer A. Anitha and inspector of matriculation schools Manoharan too inspected the school after the incident.

The school management has reportedly told the officials that the girl accidentally had fallen from the fourth floor. Sources in the school education department said the department inquiry would continue with the teachers and other staff.