Teacher snaps relationship with minor student, arrested in Chennai

CHENNAI: More than a month after a 17-year-old died by suicide at his residence in Ambattur, police have arrested a 25-year-old woman, a teacher at a private school who was in an alleged relationship with the boy for driving him to the extreme step.

Ambattur AWPS (All women police station) Inspector K.Jothilakshmi told DT Next that the teacher was booked on charges of abetment to suicide and under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

The boy who completed Class 12 in May died by suicide on August 30, after which Ambattur police registered a case.

His family members alleged foul play into his death and sought police investigation after which the teacher’s alleged role in the suicide came out.

Police investigations revealed that the teacher was in a ‘relationship’ with the boy and abruptly stopped talking to him after she got engaged recently.

The boy’s various attempts to contact the teacher were futile, over which he was depressed, police learnt from his friends.

While there was no suicide note found when the boy died, police checked the mobile phone of the victim and found the exchanges between him and a teacher at his school, which confirmed the version from his friends.

The woman was a Class 10 teacher in the same school the boy studied in and the two of them had exchanged several text messages, calls and intimate photos, according to police sources.

Two months ago she got engaged with a man and snapped ties with the boy, after which he became depressed and ended his life, police said.

On Wednesday, personnel from Ambattur AWPS arrested the teacher. She was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.