A TEACHER told a coroner’s inquest today that a girl who had tried to kill herself after she was accused of stealing her teacher’s phone in school had confessed to the theft.

S. Paramasivam, a witness in the inquest into her death, told the coroner’s court today that the Form Two girl, M. Vasanthapiriya, had admitted to him that she and another student stole the phone.

“I asked her what had happened to the phone. She said all the teachers had accused her of taking it because she was caught on CCTV.  

“She said she never saw the footage herself, so she could not admit it. After she was shown the footage, she confessed,” said the teacher, who taught Vasanthapiriya’s class in SM Methodist Nibong Tebal.

Paramasivam said the confession was made at the school’s assembly area shortly before dismissal at about 6.30pm on January 24, the day of the incident.

He said there were other teachers, prefects, and students at the assembly area, as everyone were getting ready to go home, and nobody had forced Vasanthapiriya to admit to the act.

“She said she only waited outside the staff room, keeping a lookout while another girl had gone in for the phone. She named the other Form Two student, whom I also know.

“But the CCTV from the staff room showed only one girl going in and out of the staff room.

“When I asked again what had happened to the phone, Vasanthapiriya said she could retrieve it if the teacher, the owner of the phone, would take her to the other’s girl house. I went home shortly after that,” he said.

Vasanthapiriya, 14, tried to kill herself in her bedroom by hanging the same night of the incident, after the teacher with the missing phone sent her home and spoke to her parents.

The girl died a week later at the Seberang Jaya Hospital on February 1.

Her death sparked an outcry, as her family had lodged a police report claiming that she was falsely accused and beaten at school over the missing phone.

The teacher whose phone was allegedly stolen was removed from the school and given a desk job at the southern Seberang Prai district education office.

She was reportedly threatened with a lynching and even received death threats.

The inquest resumes tomorrow before coroner Norsalha Hamzah tomorrow at 10am with the prosecution calling three more witnesses.

Lawyers Paramjit Singh and Sukhinderpal Singh respectively stood for Vasanthapiriya’s family and organisation Malaysian Tamilar Kural, which highlighted the case when it happened. – May 24, 2018.