Violence breaks out in Tamil Nadu, protesters set school buses on fire over girl student's suicide

Protesters stormed inside Chinnasalem school pushing down the barricades put up by the police and set the buses on fire that were parcked inside the school.

Image credit: ANI

Kallakurichi: Violence broke out on Sunday (July 17) near here as protesters demanding justice over the death of a girl student went on a rampage setting fire to vehicles and indulged in stone pelting, in which police personnel also became the target. The agitators, pushing down barricades put up by the police, stormed the premises of a school at nearby Chinnasalem and set buses parked inside the institution's premises on fire, police said. Some of them set ablaze a police bus as well. Outnumbered for a while, the best efforts of police to disperse the protesters proved futile. A chunk of agitators had a free run and indulged in vandalism.

Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu appealed to the people to maintain calm and warned against resorting to violence. Tough action would be taken against those indulging in violence, he told reporters in Chennai. A 17-year-old girl, studying Class 12 in a private residential school in Chinnasalem, about 15 km from here was found dead on July 13 in the hostel premises.

The girl, an inmate of a room on the third floor of the hostel was suspected to have ended her life by jumping to the ground from the top floor. A postmortem report reportedly indicated that she had sustained injuries before her death. Police registered a case and a probe is on. Shocked by her death, her parents, relatives and people belonging to her village Periyanasalur, off Veppur in the Cuddalore district have been staging non-stop protests seeking justice.

Blaming the school authorities and seeking action against them they held a protest here on July 16 for the fourth successive day. Their demands include a CB-CID probe and arrest of those responsible for the girl's death. Their demands have the support of a political outfit and the youth wing of a Left party.