KOCHI: Amid discussions over streaks of violence among youth in the backdrop of a Class X student’s death in Thamarassery, the Infopark police have registered a case after classmates threw velvet bean (naikurana) powder -- which causes severe itching -- on a girl student at the Government High School, Thengod, in Kakkanad.
The police have booked five students under the Juvenile Justice Act and two teachers under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act, an officer with the Infopark police station said.
“We registered the case on Saturday based on a complaint by the girl, a class X student, on whom the itching powder was allegedly thrown in the first week of February,” the officer said.
The police will take further action once the SSLC examinations are over, he added.
The incident came to light after the girl and her mother spoke to a television channel, alleging that some students threw itching powder on her while she was lying head-down in class after an exam.
In the subsequent days, things became worse, and due to the medications she was taking, she was neither able to attend school nor study properly for the upcoming SSLC exams, the girl claimed.
Her mother alleged that the school authorities initially refused her permission to take the SSLC exams citing insufficient attendance. However, after the general education department intervened, the school authorities have reportedly allowed the girl to write the exams beginning on Monday.