Kallakurichi Student Death: Supreme Court seeks Tamil Nadu's response on appeal against grant of bail to accused

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the response of the Tamil Nadu government on an appeal against a Madras High Court order granting bail to all the accused in the Kallakurichi student death case [AP Selvi vs State]..A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath issued the notice in the matter after hearing Senior Counsel Sidharth Luthra representing the petitioner, who is the deceased student's mother. The death of the 17-year-old student on July 13 this year had led to much violence, including stone-pelting and arson in and around the school building.Her parents had registered a complaint with the police alleging foul play and claiming that their daughter had likely been raped before her death. Following the complaint, five persons, including two teachers, the school principal, the school management correspondent and the school secretary were arrested by the police.The High Court had transferred the probe in the case to the Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) on July 18.Subsequently on August 30, the High Court had granted five accused persons bail, saying that the postmortem report in the case showed that it was a case of suicide. The Court had observed that it was "unfortunate" that teachers had been booked in the case merely for asking the student to study well.This led to the present appeal before the apex court..The plea, filed through advocate Rahul Shyam Bhandari, said that the High Court ruling went against well-established principles of bail jurisprudence by delivering findings on the merits of the case and holding a 'mini-trial'.The petitioner submitted that the order under challenge was passed "as if the High Court was seized of appellate proceedings pertaining to an acquittal ... the High Court has also clearly ruled out the offence of 305 IPC too ... despite State’s clear stand that at least offence under section 305 IPC is made out."Since the probe is still under way, the High Court erred in holding that it was a case of suicide when the injuries indicated otherwise, it was submitted. Further, the High Court also failed to consider that the accused being an influential person, poses threat to the safety of the family of the deceased. On the reliance on the alleged suicide note of the deceased that said she was facing difficulty in studies, it was submitted, "It is shocking to believe that the deceased committed suicide on account of facing difficulties in studies since the deceased herself was a bright child and she has secured 492 marks out of 600 in the 11th standard. Therefore, alleged suicidal notes creates more cloud as to its authenticity since, a bright student who secured 82% in 11th is not able to understand equation of 12th standard and commits suicide for this reason cannot be believed."