Puducherry: Woman kills daughter’s classmate for scoring higher marks, say police

“The investigation is underway. The accused has been booked under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The post-mortem was conducted and the body was handed over to the parents. The final rites were completed yesterday (Sunday). After receiving the post-mortem reports, we will get to know the actual reason behind the death of the student,” a senior police official told indianexpress.com.

The police said the incident happened on Friday when the students of a private school were practising for their annual day event. The victim, identified as Bala Manikandan, was allegedly handed over a bottle of a soft drink by the school watchman during the rehearsals.

After drinking the soft drink during the break, the boy developed discomfort and after reaching home in the afternoon he threw up. Rajendran and Malathi, the parents of Manikandan, then took him to Karaikal Government Hospital. The hospital provided him with some medicine and sent him home. However, after the boy vomited again in a couple of hours, he was rushed to the hospital and admitted.

After talking to their son, the parents and other relatives checked with the school authorities about the soft drink and through CCTV footage, they came to know that the boy was given the drink by a woman later identified as Sahayarani. The parents then lodged a complaint at the Karaikal police station.

The police said that the boy’s condition was steady on Friday but worsened Saturday and later that evening he was pronounced dead.

The senior official cited above told indianexpress.com that the accused initially provided contradictory statements. The official said after they told the woman they have evidence, including CCTV footage, against her she confessed to buying pills for diarrhoea to prevent the boy from participating in the annual day event. She said she had mixed it with the juice and gave the bottle to the watchman, the official added.

Following the death of the boy, his parents and relatives held a protest outside the hospital alleging he was not provided proper care by the hospital. The angry mob damaged some of the properties at the hospital and blocked a road near the building.

Police personnel were deployed around the hospital to prevent any untoward incident.

Karaikal Deputy Collector M Adarsh reached the spot to persuade the relatives and promised to take necessary action.

A purported video of the boy at the hospital saying that he drank the juice provided by his classmate’s mother was shared widely on social media. The boy also said in the video that his classmate used to fight with him often as he scored higher marks than her.