A teacher was stabbed to death in the classroom of a private school here on Thursday, allegedly by a 15-year-old student who was upset at being repeatedly reprimanded by her for not doing well in studies.
R. Uma Maheswari (39), who had been teaching science and Hindi for close to a decade at the St. Mary's Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School on Armenian Street in Parry's Corner, was sitting in the first floor room, for the IX A Hindi class, when the boy rushed in, slashed her throat and stabbed her in the abdomen and chest.
She was taken to a nearby private hospital, which referred her to the Government General Hospital. But she died on the way.
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The murder happened around 10.50 a.m. According to Fr. Bosco Periyanayagam, a member of the school committee, the boy ran ahead of others into the classroom, where Ms. Maheswari was sitting in a chair waiting for the students. After approaching her on the pretext of wanting to drop rubbish into the bin, he took out a knife wrapped in a paper and attacked her.
According to a police official, other students who had followed him into the class raised an alarm on seeing the attack. Teachers from the staff room on the same floor ran into the classroom and overpowered the boy, who did not attempt to flee. Following information from the school, Esplanade police arrived and took custody of the boy.
“The boy has been studying in the school for the past five years and is regular but he did not study well. It is the practice of teachers to write remarks in the diary about the performance of the students. The teacher had made notes about his poor show,” Fr. Periyanayagam told reporters.
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During questioning by police, the boy said he had recently seen the Hindi movie Agneepath and was influenced by the hero who takes revenge on those who falsely implicate his father. The boy had failed in both mathematics and Hindi. While the mathematics teacher had not scolded him, Ms. Maheswari had written remarks in his diary. This angered him.
The boy hails from an affluent family. A police official described him as a pampered child at home. “He was given Rs.100 as pocket money daily.”
Ms. Maheswari was a resident of Mandaveli and has two daughters.