Boy ends life after teacher pulls him up for playing in school

According to police, R Vivekanandan, son of Raj Kumar, an auto driver, and Thangammal, a teacher in a private school, was studying in a school on Dharapuram Road. Both Vivekanandan and his sister, a Class 6 student, are studying in the same school. 

On Thursday evening, Raj Kumar dropped his two children at their residence in Mahalakshmi Nagar and left for work. 

A little later, Thangammal returned home, but left the boy undisturbed assuming that he was asleep in a room. 

After a long while, Thangammal knocked on the doors and called him out. As there was no response, she sought the help of neighbours, who broke open the doors. 

To their shock, they found the boy hanging from the ceiling fan. On receiving information, the Nallur police rushed to the spot and sent the boy’s body for autopsy to the Tirupur Government Hospital. 

In a suicide note recovered by police, the boy blamed his teacher for pushing him to take the extreme step. He used to play the ‘number game’ with his friends in school, he said in the note. Explaining the game, Vivekanandan had written that the boys used to venture out of school in the morning and during lunch hours and the person who returns ‘ninth’ would be made fun of by others. 

A teacher who found them playing the game had scolded Vivekanandan and threatened to inform his parents. This apparently drove the boy to take the extreme step. Expressing his apologies to his parents over his decision to end his life, Vivekanandan also sought in his suicide note that no action needs to be taken against his teacher. 

Meanwhile, parents and relatives of the deceased boy blocked the road near the Tirupur Government Hospital on Friday demanding action against two teachers for abetting his suicide. 

They, however, withdrew the protest after Tirupur South police rushed to the spot and promised action following an inquiry. 

Traffic was disrupted on the stretch for sometime due to the protest.