Student admitted taking teacher's handphone: Witness

GEORGE TOWN: A school girl admitted to a teacher that she and a friend had taken a handphone belonging to another teacher, the Coroner's Court was told today.
Teacher, S. Paramasivam, 47, said the student confessed after he showed her a video footage which caught a glimpse of the student in the staff room.
Paramasivam is the third witness of the inquest into the death of Form Two student M. Vasanthapiriya, who was found hanged, believed to have been humiliated after she was accused of stealing a teacher's mobile phone.
Paramasivam who testified on the first day of the inquest today said, Vasanthapiriya told him that she waited outside the room while her friend Yogamalar took the phone.
He said Vasanthapiriya also told him that she could take him to Yogamalar's house if he wanted to get back the phone belonging to Cikgu Raymala.
"That was what she said to me when I questioned her over the missing phone," the witness said.
He said he questioned the student on the matter at the school assembly site at 6.30pm on Jan 24 this year, in the presence of a disciplinary teacher, Cikgu Salman.
"The student admitted to the act after I showed her a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage of the staff room on Cikgu Salman's handphone.
"Initially Vasanthapiriya said how could she confess that she had taken the phone when she had not seen the video footage.
"Finally I let her have a look at the video footage on Cikgu Salman's phone," said Paramasivam who is one of Vasanthapiriya's class teachers.
Earlier, another witness, Zaharatul Husna Zulkifli, 30, who is also a teacher at SMK Methodist Nibong Tebal said she noticed a student entering and taking a handphone from the staff room.
"The time was 12.40pm (Jan 24, 2018) and when I asked the student what she was doing, she said she was taking the phone for her teacher," she said.
However, Zaharatul Husna who teaches Form Four and Five classes could not recognise the student.
Prosecuting officers Yusaini Amer Abdul Karim and J.G.Kameni are conducting the inquest before Coroner Norsalha Hamzah.
The inquest continues tomorrow.
Vasanthapiriya died at the Seberang Jaya Hospital Intensive Care Unit at 3.35am on Feb 1, after she was believed to have hanged herself in a suicide attempt at her home, after she was accused of stealing her teacher's handphone at the school. — Bernama