Miscreants hurl petrol bomb at govt school, documents charred

Villagers noticed smoke emanating from the room around 5am and informed the Fire and Rescue Services personnel in Krishnagiri. The fire tenders managed to douse the fire after a long struggle.

In the fire, scores of transfer certificates (TC), answer scripts, the attendance registers of both students and teachers, UPS and computers were burnt to ashes. Soon, parents gathered at the school to search for certificates.

Police inquiries revealed that miscreants had broken open the ventilator and hurled the petrol bomb. Villagers claimed they spotted a few persons moving around suspiciously near the school around 4 am. More than 1,500 students from around 50 villages in the neighbourhood are studying in the school.

Krishnasamy Gounder Puspavathiyammal Memorial Government Middle School in Tirupur district received a letter on Thursday, fourth in the last three months – January 2, February 5, and on Wednesday – warning to blow the school if a recreational club near the school was not shut down.

The letters stated that the club functioning near the school on Uthukuli Road had become a den for illegal activities, including gambling, sale of banned drugs and prostitution, allegedly in connivance with police.

Headmistress Selvi discussed the issue with members of PTA, which lodged a complaint. The bomb squad sleuths thoroughly checked the premises for over an hour, but ruled it out as just a hoax letter.