Four people, including the correspondent of the school, have been arrested in connection with the death of six-year-old Sruthi, who died after falling through a hole on the floor of her school bus near Tambaram on Wednesday.
St. Thomas Mount Traffic Police (Investigation) said a case under Sections 279 and 304 (ii) of the Indian Penal Code and read with Sections 182 (A) and 190 of Motor Vehicle Act were registered. N.Vijayan, Correspondent of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Yogeswaran, the contractor hired by the school to operate the buses, Seeman, the 58-year-old driver of the bus and Shanmugham, the attender of the bus were detained on Thursday.
As Shanmugham, 17, is a minor, he was taken to the Children’s Home in Kellys. The three others were produced before Sandilyan, Judicial Magistrate, at his residence in Saidapet and remanded in judicial custody and taken to Puzhal Prison.
Sruthi, a class II student of the school, died when she slipped through a hole under her seat and was run over by the rear wheels of the bus. Her body was handed over to her relatives late on Wednesday night after a post mortem at Tambaram Taluk Government Hospital in Chromepet. On Thursday, several hundred people came to the girl’s house in Bharadwaj Nagar, PTC Quarters in Varadarajapuram. They first took part in a silent procession from the accident spot to the house. Government officials, students from neighbouring schools, people of Mudichur and Manimangalam offered their condolences to Sethumadhavan and Priya, Sruthi’s parents.
Members of Democratic Youth Federation of India and Students’ Federation of India staged a protest outside the office of the Regional Transport Officer, Tambaram, alleging negligence in issuing fitness certificates for buses, especially school buses. In this case, the certificate was issued only on July 9.
Senior officers from the Department were summoned to the office of Inspector of Police, Traffic (Investigation) in Pallavaram, where they were questioned.
