Cops, activist blame school for girl’s death

Ashok Nagar police have altered the sections in the FIR to 304 (a) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) as the negligence on the part of the school authorities only caused the death of the girl.

“We are investigating the case and have taken statements of a few other children of the school. Initial investigations suggest that the school authorities were at fault and there was gross negligence from the side of the school management, which failed to keep the door to the fourth floor closed,” P Saravanan, DCP, T Nagar told DTNext. 

Meanwhile, Varaaki, a social activist, who had taken up the matter with the education department, said that the school building had violated all safety norms. “The fourth floor terrace had just a one-foot tall parapet. Any building should have a three-foot parapet. The school building itself is violation in terms of location as the road in front is barely 20 feet wide,” Varaaki alleged.

He said as per the existing FSI, the management could not construct a four-storeyed structure with a 20 feet road frontage. “Moreover, the school had been making false claims with the media and the police to put the blame on the child for the tragedy. The school does not have proper toilet facilities and there is none to safeguard the children,” Varaaki said.

It may be recalled that Logamithra (8), a Class 4 girl, fell from the terrace of a four-storeyed school at Ashok Nagar on Thursday afternoon and died in the hospital around 8 pm. The school authorities did not inform the police about the incident and the child was admitted to a hospital run by the school management itself. School authorities had maintained that the child had gone to the fourth floor to pluck some leaves and fell from there.