Kollam: The High Court granted anticipatory bail to the teachers accused in the suicide of the student at Trinity Lyceum in Kollam. The court directed the teachers, who are absconding, to surrender before the Magistrate Court on November 17. The teachers should also be present before the investigative agency on November 18,19, and 20 and cooperate with the investigation into the case.
The bail plea was submitted by the teachers Sindhu Paul and Crescence Navis, in connection with the suicide of the girl. The Police had charged them under sections 511, 305, 34 of IPC including abetment to suicide. The teachers who are absconding had been suspended by the school management. Gauri, daughter of Prasannan, of Makkatt Kizhakkathil, Kannimelcheri in Sakthikulangara, a 10th Standard student, jumped from the second floor of the primary block of the school on October 20 and succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on October 23.
The Police had earlier told the Court that the teachers must be made available in Police custody for collecting evidence in the case. The charges of abetment of suicide would stand, the prosecution pointed out, as against the arguments by the lawyer of the accused that a trivial issue among the students had led to the suicide. The CCTV visuals also substantiate the prosecution’s stand that the teachers were involved in the crime. According to the statement given by Gauri’s father, she was mentally tortured by her sister’s class teacher which provoked her to take the extreme step. Gauri’s sister studying in the 8th Standard in the same school was made to sit among boys as a disciplinary action. This was questioned by Gauri and the incidents that followed led to the teacher scolding her.
