THENI: The headmaster of a government-aided school was allegedly attacked and verbally abused by the correspondent of the school in the presence of 30 students of a primary school located in Cumban street in Theni city on Tuesday. The correspondent, after the attack, made the children and the HM go out of the classroom and locked all the classrooms. The video of the incident went viral on Wednesday.
Maharaja Primary School has been functioning since 2006. Correspondent of the school Anbalagan has been working as a headmaster in Muthiah Government High School in Allinagaram in the district. M Sendrayaperumal (47), the headmaster of the primary school, has been working as the headmaster of the school for the past 15 years. V Sumathi, another teacher, has been working in the school for the past eight years.
According to sources, Anbalagan came to school on Tuesday and beat HM Sendrayaperumal and unparliamentary words against him. "While Sumathi took a video of the incident, Anbalagan shouted at her and told her to stop. Following this, he sent all the students, HM and Sumathi out of the classrooms and locked the classrooms," sources added.
Upon information, Chief Educational Officer Senthilvel Kumaran, Elementary Education DEO Vasanthidevi came to the spot and safely sent the children to their homes and conducted an inquiry.
Speaking to TNIE, Sendrayaperumal claimed that he was asked to give `10,000 to the correspondent Anbalagan every month since he joined duty. "Similarly, Sumathi also has to give '8,000. Few years before, both of us refused to give the amount. Following this, Anbalagan started quarrelling with us and stopped disbursing our salaries from January, 2022 to June 2022. We approached The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and as per court's order, we began getting salaries from the government regularly," he said.
He further stated that on January 17, a correspondent suddenly came into the school, attacked me. "I have already filed a complaint against him at the Theni police station and the educational officials concerned. However, no action has been taken against him yet. I now have swelling in my leg and injuries on my body due to Anbalagan's attack. I have lodged a complaint at the Theni police station," he added.
When TNIE contacted Elementary District Educational Officer Vasanthi Devi, she said that a correspondent of a government-aided school can also work as the headmaster of a government school. "I have inquired about the event and submitted a report to Chief Educational Officer Senthilvel Murugan. I am unaware of the reason for the quarrel between Anbalagan and Sendrayaperumal," she added.
Following Sendrayaperumal's complaint, Theni police registered a case and are on the look out for Anbalagan.