THANJAVUR: Of the 21 accused in the Kumbakonam school fire tragedy case whose pleas were heard by the Thanjavur District Sessions Court, 11 were acquitted of the charges against them. Of these, eight were government officials and three others were teachers of the school, where the fire tragedy took place.
The government officials acquitted from the case were B Palanisamy (67), who has been working as District Elementary Educational officer from July 1, 2004 to July 16, 2004, R Narayanasamy (63), who has been working as District Educational Officer, Thanjavur from June 10, 2004 to July 16, 2004, J Radhakrishnan, Assistant Elementary Education officer attached to Thiruvidaimarudur, who has been holding additional charge of Kumbakonam from June 1, 2004 to July 16, 2004, K Balakrishnan, the Additional Assistant Elementary Educational officer from January 12, 1999 to June 30, 2003, G Madhavan (68) who worked as Additional Assistant Elementary officer, Kumbakonam from July 1, 2003 to May 31, 2004, V Balasubramanian, who worked as the Assistant Elementary Education officer (nursery) from July 7, 2000 to July 16, 2004, R Sathiyamurthy, who worked as
Municipal commissioner from August 8, 2003 onwards and K Murugan, who worked as Town Planning officer of Kumbakonam Municipality.
The three teachers of the ill fated Sri Krishna Aided Primary school who were acquitted were P Devi, R Mahalakshmi and T Antoniammal. The judge in his order stated they were not found guilty under the relevant sections of the acts quoted and hence they were discharged from the case.
Talking to reporters about appealing against their acquittal, R Madhusoodhanan, the Additional Government pleader said a review petition would be filed after we receive a copy of the judgment and go through the reasons for the acquittal.
The advocates who appeared for B Palanisamy, then DEEO, R Narayanasamy, DEO and J Radhakrishnan, AEEO said they have argued that the three were only holding additional charges and that too they have worked for a brief period of 11 working days, 32 working days and 32 days in their additional capacity. Hence they could not be faulted for not inspecting the particular school in that short period.
Moreover, the three had not signed any papers granting recognition for the school. Hence the court accepted the arguments that the prosecution could not prove the charges with credible evidence and acquitted them. The three teachers were also acquitted as the charges against them were not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
The advocates for the teachers argued that two other teachers from whose class more number of students died were not arraigned as accused in the case by the police. This also was accepted by the court, the advocates said.