Kallakurichi School Girl Death: Madras HC orders parents to hand over girl's phone to probe team

During a hearing of the writ petition filed by the father of a girl who allegedly died by suicide at a school in Kallakurichi, Tamil Nadu, the state's Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah told the Madras High Court that her parents were not cooperating with the CB-CID in its probe into her death, reported PTI.

As per the parents' demands, the investigation into the case has been transferred to the CB-CID. However, the girl's parents were not assisting the investigating officer, said the Public Prosecutor to Justice V Sivagnanam today, September 27.

In July this year, the 17-year-old girl allegedly died by suicide at her school in Kallakurichi. In the aftermath of her death, the district was rocked by protests and violence as her parents alleged foul play in her death, even as the school authorities and the local police declared it a case of suicide. 

When the case came up for hearing today, the judge enquired why the petition had not been closed, despite the demands of the petitioner (the girl's father) to transfer the investigation had been met. The court was informed by the petitioner's counsel that the parents had met with Chief Minister MK Stalin and demanded a fair probe into the matter. The counsel also pleaded that the CDs of the first and second postmortem of the girl be provided to her father, reported PTI.

The Public Prosecutor, on the other hand, said that the CDs cannot be supplied to the petitioner as the judge had already held that no documents pertaining to the case should be given to him, until the completion of the probe. He added that although the parents had shown the girl's mobile phone during the inquiry, they had refused to hand it over to the investigating officer. The Madras High Court has now ordered the parents to hand over the mobile phone to the CB-CID and has posted the matter for hearing on October 10.