'Fake' trainer pushes 19-yr-old TN student to death during disaster drill

Coimbatore: A 19-year-old undergraduate student died when she jumped off the second floor of her college building during a disaster preparedness drill in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on Thursday evening.

N Logeswari was a second year student pursuing Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA) course at Kovai Kalaimagal College of Arts and Science at Narasipuram.

Around 4 pm on Thursday, students of the college were being shown how to escape if disaster struck. A video of the training session showed Lokeswari perched on the sunshade of the second floor balcony, when the trainer Arumugan, standing next to her, was telling her to jump.

Eyewitnesses say Logeswari was reluctant and did not want to but was prompted repeatedly by the trainer. After a while, the trainer pushed her and she tumbled down hitting her head on the sunshade of the first floor.

Though students standing on the ground were holding a net for Logeshwari to land safely, she crashed to the ground after hitting the sunshade.

According to reports, Logeswari was rushed to a private hospital in Thondamuthur, where she was administered first aid. She was referred to the state-run Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, where she was declared "brought dead".

The police have sent the body for postmortem and the family has been informed.

Trainer Arumugan has been taken into custody by the police and a case for causing death due to negligence has been filed against him.

College authorities told the police that the drill was conducted by the National Disaster Management Authority of India (NDMAI).

Meanwhile, NDMA has clarified that Arumugam was not authorised to conduct such a drill.

Police said nearly 20 students were being given training to jump through an emergency window.

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