A CLASSMATE of M. Vasanthapiriya, the SM Methodist Nibong Tebal schoolgirl who tried to kill herself after accused of stealing her teacher’s iPhone in January, said she was with the deceased at the time of the alleged theft.

S. Tharsini, 14, said she and Vasanthapiriya were at school early on January 24 for sports practice – she arriving at 10am while the latter at 11am.

They had activities until 12pm at the school field, before they started their afternoon classes from 1.05pm, she said.

 “Vasanthapiriya was with me when we changed into our uniforms,” she told an inquest into the girl’s death at a coroner’s court in George Town, Penang today.

“Yes, we were together in the school toilet at 12.30pm until we went to line up at the assembly area to go to class at 1pm,” she told deputy public prosecutor J.S. Kamini.

Tharsini also said she was with Vasanthapiriya when it was learnt that one of their teachers was missing her smartphone, and when the discipline teacher called up the girl for questioning at 3.30pm.

“We were in the science lab when the discipline teacher wanted to talk to Vasanthapiriya at the school office.”

Asked whether Vasanthapiriya was with her the whole time from 11am until 3.30pm that day, Tharsini said yes.

It was alleged that Vasanthapiriya had stolen the teacher’s iPhone at the staff room shortly before the afternoon session started.

Yesterday, a morning session teacher Zahratul Husna Zulkifli told the court that she saw an Indian female student with long hair holding a smartphone at the desk belonging to the teacher with the missing phone.

The CCTV at the staff room also captured a female student entering and leaving the staff room between 12.45pm and 1pm.

Another teacher S. Paramasivam told the court yesterday that Vasanthapiriya admitted that she and another Form Two female student had taken the phone, after she was shown the CCTV footage.

It was reported that 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 father.

The girl died a week later at the Seberang Jaya Hospital on February 1, sparking a public outcry.

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 publicly ostracised and even received death threats.

Vasanthapiriya’s two eldest siblings also testified this morning. Her sister M. Himapria, 18, and brother M. Meharaj, 16, related the events that happened after she was brought home by the teacher until they found her hanging in her room.

They said Vasanthapiriya, the youngest of four siblings, had denied stealing the phone, and nobody at home scolded the girl over the incident.

Meharaj said his father, R. Muniandy, told the teacher he would investigate the claim and was even willing to replace the phone, regardless whether Vasanthapiriya had stolen it or not.

“The teacher who was with her husband left our house shortly after that,” he said.

Himapria and Meharaj also confirmed that the suicide note found in the room by a cousin after Vasanthapiriya was sent to the hospital was written in her handwriting. The note had a line that read nobody was responsible for the girl’s death.

The inquest before coroner Norsalha Hamzah continues on July 4, 5 and 6.– May 25, 2018.