Representatives of Scheduled Caste (SC) welfare organisations have demanded the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) into what they allege to be a caste-based attack on an Class VIII boy by a few other students at a government high school at Kunnathur in Tiruppur district.
Producing a video clip showing the boy’s mother alleging caste-based discrimination at the NRKN Government High School, the representatives insisted that the attackers of the 13-year-old must be booked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The police had, in a press release on January 30, denied any caste-based motivations behind the incident in which the boy had suffered burns after the other students allegedly pushed him into a pit that was being used to burn garbage on the school premises. The police said the incident occurred accidentally while the students were playing. When the boy was pushed by his schoolmates, he lost his balance and fell into the pit.
In a petition submitted to the Superintendent of Police, Tiruppur Rural, representatives of the SC welfare organisations alleged that though the boy’s parents had now been silenced by the police and school authorities, an FIR should be registered under the Act considering the gravity of the offence.
