"Justice has eluded us"

Palanisamy forged the rent deed and other valuable documents in respect of the school, Special Public Prosecutor R. Madhusudhanan said, explaining the severity of the sentence.

Angry parents of the victims argue with the policemen as they wait outside the Principal District and Session Court. Photo: M. Moorthy

Among the 10 convicted in the Kumbakonam school fire case, the maximum sentence of life imprisonment was handed down to the prime accused ‘Pulavar’ R. Palanisamy, founder of Sri Krishna Middle School.

The court held Palanisamy guilty under Section 467, read with Section 197, and Section 304 (ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC and handed him life sentence.

Palanisamy forged the rent deed and other valuable documents in respect of the school, Special Public Prosecutor R. Madhusudhanan said, explaining the severity of the sentence.

Palanisamy’s wife Saraswathy, their adopted daughter J. Santhalakshmi, noon- meal organiser R. Vijayalakshmi and cook R. Vasanthi were sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment under Section 304 (ii).

Education Department officials — R. Balaji, S. Sivaprakasam, T. Thandavan and G. Durairaj — were convicted under the same Sections 467 and 197 of the IPC as Palanisamy. However, the officials were sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment. Each was slapped a fine of Rs. 10,000.

Mr. Madhusudhanan said 11 other accused were acquitted as the judge found no sufficient grounds to convict them.

The full text of the judgment, which runs to 466 pages, is expected to be obtained by counsel in a couple of days. Only then will the other details be available.

Barring one, the other nine convicts were taken to the Tiruchi Central Prison in the evening. They were earlier taken to the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital for examination.

One of the convicts, B. Jeyachandran (accused no. 12), was not sent to jail as he was sentenced to just two-year imprisonment. The judge suspended the sentence for one month to enable him to prefer an appeal before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and obtain a suspension order till the case was disposed of, Mr. Madhusudhanan said.

Although 24 persons were initially named as accused, the number came down to 21. The then Chief Educational Officer of Thanjavur, M. Palanisamy, S. Paramasivam, the then Tahsildar, Kumbakonam, and R. Kannan, the then Director of Elementary Education, were also named as accused. However, the government withdrew the case against them through an order.