COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore city police on Thursday arrested a teacher on charges of abetting the suicide of a Class 11 student who allegedly faced caste-based harassment at his school in Peelamedu.

The police have also booked the school's headmaster, Arun Kumar (43), and two students for allegedly harassing A Akilan (16), son of Ashok Kumar of AT Colony in Peelamedu, with caste-based slurs and taunts over his food choices.

Based on a complaint lodged by the boy's mother, A Kousalyadevi, the Peelamedu police registered a case against the four under Sections 115(2) and 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Wednesday night. The police have arrested teacher Vijayakumar (42) and are questioning the headmaster and two students.

In her complaint, Kousalyadevi alleged that Vijayakumar had asked students belonging to Scheduled Caste communities in the classroom to enrol for a stipend scheme, and Akilan had signed up for it.

The teacher had subsequently asked the students how many of them ate beef, to which Akilan had replied in the affirmative. Following this, some of his classmates allegedly began targeting him with caste-based remarks over his food choices.

“Akilan had complained to the teacher about the harassment, but no action was taken. The headmaster had also failed to intervene despite the issue being brought to his notice,” police said.

According to the police, Akilan left home on Wednesday morning, telling his mother that he was going to school. Kousalyadevi, who works as a domestic worker, returned home for lunch and found the front doors locked. She then found her son hanging. The Peelamedu police recovered the body and sent it to the ESI Government Hospital for a postmortem.

Meanwhile, the boy's relatives gathered outside the Peelamedu police station today and staged a protest demanding action against those allegedly responsible for his death.