A tense situation prevailed near the ICSE school Trinity Lyceum on Monday when a march taken out by SFI and KSU activists, following the suicide of a girl student, turned violent.
The march was in protest against the alleged harassment meted out by two women teachers of the school to a Class X student following which she jumped from the third floor of the school building on Friday. She died in a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
The police used force when the protesters began throwing stones at the school property. A bus owned by the school parked on the campus was badly damaged in the attack and other school property was also vandalised. Several policemen, SFI and KSU activists and at least four mediapersons were injured in the violence. The police then used teargas shells to disperse the mob. KSU activists who were staging a dharna in front of the school gate were caned and chased away. Some of the KSU activists who resisted the police were arrested. The SFI activists who threw stones from a distance were chased away.
The KSU has called for a districtwide education hartal on Tuesday in protest against police action. Anticipating trouble, the school authorities had on Saturday itself declared a holiday on Monday.
Meanwhile, the body of the girl was brought to her house at Ramankulangara in the city by about 3 p.m. after a post-mortem examination in Thiruvananthapuram. Hundreds of people had gathered there to pay their last respects to her. The funeral rites were held at the Mulankadakam public crematorium.
Teachers absconding
The police had registered a criminal case against two teachers, Sindhu and Cresence, in connection with the incident. Following the death of the student, the police moved in to arrest the teachers, but both had absconded by then. The police said they had even searched the houses of relatives of the two, but in vain.
It is understood that the two teachers are moving the High Court for anticipatory bail. The SFI alleged that the police were lax in arresting the teachers and that their protests would continue till the two were arrested.
The district unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists registered a strong protest against the attack on journalists who were at the scene as part of their duty.
In a statement, KUWJ district president Jayachandran Elankath and secretary G. Biju called upon the police to take stern action against those demonstrators who had attacked the mediapersons.
Chennithala’s demand
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has demanded an investigation into the incident that led to the student’s death. Steps should be taken so that such incidents were not repeated, he said in a statement. He also condemned the police action on the protesters.
