In this photograph taken on July 16, 2004, a police officer picks through debris after a fire in a school building in Kumbokonam some 350km southwest of Chennai.

Agencies/Chennai

 

A court in Tamil Nadu yesterday sentenced a headmistress and nine others to jail over a school fire that killed 94 children a decade ago, in the first convictions surrounding the tragedy.

In a packed court in Thanjavur, the judge found the 10 guilty for a range of offences over the blaze that swept through the private primary school in 2004 in Kumbakonam.

Judge Mohamed Ali sentenced the owner, Pulavar Palanichamy to life imprisonment. The headmistress and other officials were handed various jail terms as well as fines.  

Prosecutor R Madhusudhanan said another 11 people were also acquitted over the blaze in after all were charged with culpable homicide, gross negligence and other offences.

“We will appeal before the high court,” Madhusudhanan told NDTV of the acquittals.

The fire started in the thatched-roofed school’s kitchen where lunch was being prepared before spreading quickly to other rooms and floors.

Angry parents and firefighters at the time accused teachers of deserting the children in a rush to save their own lives.

Many of the children killed were trapped in a large classroom which had only one exit. They died after the blazing roof collapsed on top of them, reports have said. Another 18 children suffered serious burns.

Parents of the children killed, who were mostly aged between seven and 12, gathered outside the packed court for yesterday’s judgments.

One relative said most of the families were disappointed with the verdict which they had been waiting so long for.

“Now we are pained more as those who were accused of killing the children have been let off. All should have been punished,” the unnamed relative said.

The Saraswati Primary School came under severe scrutiny for poor safety standards including a lack of exits and fire-fighting equipment.

A mother, who lost two children to the school fire, said: “This is not an acceptable decision. The government officials should not be allowed to go free.”

“Justice delayed is justice denied. Freeing the 11 accused is not acceptable. The government officials should be punished...,” said another parent.

The parents urged the state government to appeal against the acquittals.

Though the accident shook the nation and cases were lodged against officials of the school management and the state government, the case moved from one court to another for years.

The case started to gather pace when charges were framed against 21 accused in 2012 and trial began soon after that.

The voluminous charge sheet in the case ran into 4,000 pages. Around 230 prosecution witnesses were examined.

Charges against C Palanisamy, then chief educational officer in Thanjavur, S Paramasivam, then village officer of Kumbakonam, and A Kannan, then director of elementary education, were dropped.

The Tamil Nadu government constructed a memorial park in Kumbakonam in memory of the 94 children.

Even today, there is a big banner with pictures of the children who lost their lives outside the now defunct school at Kasiraman Street in Kumbakonam.

Fires at India’s overcrowded and dilapidated schools occur frequently, with safety regulations routinely flaunted.

The fire was India’s worst disaster involving children since December 1995 when 178 school children were among 578 people who died in a blaze that engulfed a community tent during a festival in northern Haryana state.

 

 

 

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