Teacher admits asking student about missing handphone

GEORGE TOWN: The teacher in the centre of the alleged phone theft that led to her student hanging herself spoke publicly on the incident for the first time, maintaining at a Coroner’s Court that she did not pin the theft on the 14-year-old.

R. Raymala, 48, admitted that she questioned M. Vasantha Piriya if she had entered the teachers’ room.

“From the CCTV footage it was clear to me that the girl entering and leaving the teachers’ room was Vasantha but she denied it repeatedly,” she said.

Raymala, who was Vasantha’s class teacher, added that on the day of the incident, she was attending to her classes and extra curricular activities, contrary to earlier reports that claimed that she had accused and reprimanded Vasantha for stealing her handphone at the school before sending the girl home.

The teacher was testifying at the inquest into the death of the SM Methodist student who was found hanged at home after being accused of the theft on Jan 24.

Vasantha was in coma for seven days before passing away on Feb 1.

Raymala told the court that she even took Vasantha to the canteen for a drink after the disciplinary teacher told her that the teenager did not go for recess or eat anything.

She added that Vasantha maintained her innocence until her col- league S. Paramasivam showed the student the CCTV images from a disciplinary teacher’s handphone.

“Then Vasantha admitted it but said she had promised her friend that she would not tell anyone about it.

“She also said we could get back the handphone if we took her to her friend’s place,” she said.

However, there was no one in when they arrived so Raymala sent Vasantha home instead.

Although Vasantha whispered to her teacher not to tell her father about the incident, Raymala told R. Muniandy about it.

“When Vasantha admitted that she did it with her friend, her father flew into a rage, scolding her for befriending the girl,” Raymala said.

Before she left, Raymala said she told Muniandy not to beat or scold Vasantha, to which Muniandy said he never beat his daughters but his wife would if she heard about the matter.

Later that day, at about 8.30pm, Muniandy took a lift from Raymala and her husband to go to Vasantha’s friend’s house.

“Muniandy told me that Vasantha was not coming and that her mother had beaten her,” said Raymala.

The friend denied taking the handphone.

“On the way back, Muniandy apologised to us and said he would return the handphone and asked us to come collect it later,” Raymala added.

Several minutes after they drop- ped off Muniandy, he called Raymala screaming into the phone that Vasantha had hung herself and it was the teacher’s fault.

She also received another call from Muniandy later challenging her to lodge a police report and saying that he would do likewise.

Deputy public prosecutor Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim and J.G. Kaameni conducted the inquest before Coroner Norsalha Hamzah.

Lawyers Paramjit Singh and Sukhinderpal Singh are holding a watching brief for Vasantha’s family and non-governmental organisation Malaysian Tamilar Kural respectively, while V. Parthipan is holding a watching brief for the teacher.

The inquest continues tomorrow.