Three Tamil Nadu teachers suspended for beating student

Chennai -  Three teachers of a private school in Tamil Nadu have been suspended for beating up a Class 9 student, the school's headmaster said Saturday. He, however, denied  that the teachers had made the boy drink his urine.

"Education department officials conducted an inquiry at our school today (Saturday). Three teachers have been suspended for beating the student. But the allegation that they forced the  student to drink urine is false," U. Thangavel, headmaster of Sirumalar Higher Secondary School in Perambalur district, around 260 km from here, told IANS on the phone.

The suspended teachers were N. Karuppaiah, S. Sakthivel and Raja. The name of the student, a minor, has been withheld for legal reasons.

Speaking to reporters after the inquiry, Chief Educational Officer Mallika said: "The teachers have been suspended for beating the student. The allegation that the teachers forced him to  drink urine is false."

Thangavel said he was baffled about how the allegation of teachers asking the student to drink urine cropped up. He said the boy too had been changing his statements.

"Yesterday (Friday), he alleged that he was forced to drink urine by the three teachers. Today, he said he passed urine when the teachers beat him but did not drink it. It is not known

whether the boy was tutored to say that the teachers forced him to drink his own urine," he said.

Thangavel said the incident happened inside the classroom and if he had passed urine when the teachers beat him, other boys and the teachers would have noticed.

"His classmates and teachers do not say anything about the boy passing urine or the teachers forcing him to drink it," he said.

Thangavel said the boy had the habit of taking tobacco products and the teachers had punished him for that.

However, another version doing rounds is that the boy had asked permission to go to the toilet which the teachers initially denied him but later asked him to pass urine under the tree and

drink it.

The boy's father T. Desinguraja, who lives in Kumbakonam, told IANS by phone: "The teachers beat my boy very badly. He is not able to lie down on his back. He is undergoing treatment at

the same hospital like me. But my son did not drink urine."

A wood-cutter, Desinguraja is undergoing treatment at a government hospital in Kumbakonam, around 260 km from here, after he fractured his leg.

"My son hitch-hiked from Perambalur and came here Friday. His hostel warden called us yesterday to check whether he had reached home," he said.