School faces ire as third student dies on campus

CHIDAMBARAM: A Class XII student of Government Nandhanar Boys Higher Secondary School here, B Vimalraj, committed suicide in the hostel dining hall on Thursday. The incident triggered public anger and staged road roko in Chidambaram as this was the third such incident reported in the school.In July this year, Vignesh, a native of Keezhperur near Panruti, and a student of the same class committed suicide in his hostel room. In another incident that occurred about 8 years ago, four teachers of the school were remanded in a case in which a student was found dead with injuries in the hostel. Two years ago, a student fell from the terrace of the hostel building.Hostel students said Vimalraj had dinner at 10 pm on Wednesday in the hostel and went to bed around 11 pm. On Thursday, around 6 am  students noticed that he had hung himself from the ceiling of the dining hall using a nylon rope. Vimalraj had written his parents’ names on his palm.Parents and relatives prevented the body from  being to hospital and they took the body outside and tried to stage a road blockade by placing it on the road. However, police pacified them and an ambulance took the  body to hospital. Protesting against the school management and seeking an inquiry into the incident, relatives and villagers blocked the Chidambaram-Sirkazhi ECR. Traffic was hit for an hour. Angry people threw stones at the school buildings. Post-mortem was done at the GH and the protesters thronged the hospital too. Kattumannarkudi MLA Naga Murugamaran visited the hospital also.