 The school after the fire with the pictures of the deceased children | |
| Date | 16 July 2004[1] |
|---|---|
| Location | Kumbakonam |
| Coordinates | 10°58′12″N 79°25′12″E / 10.97000°N 79.42000°E |
| Cause | Fire |
| Deaths | 94 |
| Charges | 21 |
| Verdict | 1 (life imprisonment), 8 (five years jail), 1 (two years jail) |
| Convictions | 10 |
The 2004 Kumbakonam school fire happened in a school in Kumbakonam in the Thanjavur district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. On 16 July 2004, 94 students from the Krishna English Medium School's primary section were killed after the school's thatched roof caught fire.[2][3] The accident was one of the four most significant fire accidents, the most significant school accident in the history of Tamil Nadu, and the second-largest school fire in India in terms of casualties after the Dabwali fire accident.
A committee set up under retired Judge Sampath found out that the heavy casualties were due to the management's tactics to admit extra students to a primary school in order to mislead the authorities about the student-teacher ratio. The Chief Minister, who visited the site, ordered the withdrawal of the recognition of the three schools, prosecution of the school authorities and the correspondent, and the suspension of the Chief Educational Officer, the District Elementary Educational Officer, and the Assistant Elementary Educational Officer of the Thanjavur school district.
A compensation of ₹ 1,000,000 was provided to the next of the kin of the deceased, ₹ 25,000 to the severely injured, and ₹ 10,000 to other injured victims from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund. The district administration arranged another primary school in Natham village and accommodated 46 students under the government's Educational Guarantee Scheme.
After a long delay, a trial began on 24 September 2012 in the Thanjavur district court. The case had 21 accused and 488 witnesses, including 18 children who survived the fire. The headmaster Prabharan and three others were charged in the case, along with Pulavar Palanichamy, his wife and correspondent of the school Saraswati, three teachers, six officers of the Elementary Education Department, the Kumbakonam Municipal Commissioner, the town planning officer, and four assistants of the education department. On 30 July 2014, the court sentenced the school founder Pulavar Palanichamy to life imprisonment and fined him ₹5,165,700. Eight others, including school staff and officials from Kumbakonam and the state education department, were sentenced to five years imprisonment, and another to two years imprisonment. Eleven of those accused, including three teachers, were acquitted.
- ^ "Chronology of major fire accidents". Hindustan Times. New Delhi, India. 9 December 2011. Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2013 – via HighBeam.
- ^ "83 children killed in school fire in Kumbakonam". Rediff.com. 17 July 2004. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
- ^ "87 children die in school fire". The Hindu. 17 July 2004. Archived from the original on 18 July 2004. Retrieved 30 November 2013.