4 students died
15 girl students from Pilipatti Government Middle School near Ilupur, Pudukottai district participated in the state level sports competition held in Trichy district yesterday. They were taken by the same school teachers Sebasakeu and Thilakavathy. After the football match, they went to take a bath in the Cauvery river, Mayanur, Karur district. The students Sophia (12), Tamilarasi (13), Lavanya (11) and Iniya (11) drowned in the water when they went to bathe in the river. The bodies of 4 female students were brought to their hometown and 3 bodies were buried in different cemeteries and one female student was cremated.
Tribute to the students
Law Minister Raghupathi, Pudukottai Collector Kavita Ramu and others garlanded the bodies of the students and paid tributes. They consoled their parents. Former minister Vijayabaskar MLA also paid tribute. Also, the school’s headmaster Pottumani, teachers Sebasakeu and Thilakavathy were dismissed for negligence.
Subsequently, the town was engulfed in sadness as the parents and relatives of the 4 deceased students placed pictures of the students in their houses and cried yesterday. A large number of people came from different parts and paid tribute to the pictures of the students. Fellow students of the school also paid their respects. Considering this situation, police security was provided to the school.
what happened?
The girls who went to the sports competition said:-
From school we participated in union, district, state and national level football tournament and won medals. We did not win the football match held at Kongunadu College of Engineering, Tholurpatti, Trichy District. However, as the certificate will be available only at night, 15 of us went in a car with teachers Sebasakeu and Thilakavathy to visit Karur Mayanur Kaveri River.
The one who saved 3 people also died
When we asked to take a bath at a place, the fishermen there told us to go near the temple and take a bath. Accordingly he went thither, and told us first to go down to the Sebasakeu river and see the depth, and to keep us on the bank till then. As he walked it became shallower and by the time he turned around 8 of us followed him into the river. When the water was knee deep we started drowning one by one. Among them, Sophia, who saved 3 people, while trying to save Lavanya as the 4th person, also drowned in the water.
No one came to help
When we saw this, we screamed and screamed to save, save. But even the fishermen there did not come to help. We asked for fishing nets to rescue the drowned people and they did not even give them. They said that if we give them, they will file a case against us in the police station. If they had helped, no one would have died. And the teachers said they would take us to sports matches at their own expense.
4 people drowned
Kokila, a fellow student who survived said:- The teachers stopped us on the banks of Cauvery river and told us that no one should go anywhere. Teacher Sebasakeu was the first to go into the river to see how deep it was, saying that he had to stop here. As soon as the students saw the water, the teachers disobeyed the order and suddenly 4 students went down into the river. When Tamilarasi, Lavanya and Iniya got into the water, the water was running up to their knees. Suddenly Tamilarasi, Lavanya and Iniya started drowning in the water. Seeing this, Sophia also went down into the river to save them. Then he grabbed Iniya by her hair and lifted her up. Iniya grabs Sophia to save her life. 4 people drowned in the water. But Sofia knows how to swim well. When these 4 people were drowning in the water, none of the people there came forward to save the students. Only two youths who were there immediately drowned and tried to save them. That also did not work, he said.