11 students fall ill in Telangana after teacher laces drinking water with pesticide to frame colleagues

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Eleven students of a residential school in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, Telangana, took ill on Friday after a teacher at the school allegedly mixed pesticide in the drinking water out of spite against two other teachers, The Times of India reported.

The matter came to light when 11 students, who drank the contaminated water from the school tank, of Urban Residential School had to be admitted to a government hospital. The students were discharged after a 24-hour observation, the hospital superintendent was quoted by TOI as saying.

Citing police, TOI reported that the science teacher, identified as Rajender, allegedly mixed the pesticide in the drinking water, possibly to frame the other two teachers, Venu and Suryaprakash, as he wanted to establish his dominance in the school affairs. According to the report, the accused hid the bottle of pesticide under a student's bedsheet after emptying it in a water container. When students confronted him, he warned them not to tell anyone about the bottle.

The accused also poured a few drops of the pesticide on the bedsheets and to avoid suspicion, he too drank the contaminated water and got admitted to hospital. As per the report, the students, on Saturday morning, spilled the beans on the personal rivalry among the three teachers to the higher authorities in school.

Taking a strict action, district collector Rahul Sharma suspended the three teachers and cook Rajeshwari. Local MLA Gandra Satyanarayana Rao, collector Sharma and SP Kiran Kare visited the hospital and the school. The district collector warned the principal and teachers that any activity that harmed the students would be dealt with seriously and the guilty would be removed from service, the report added. He directed the district education authorities to conduct surprise checks along with police to keep a tab on schools, so that such incidents did not recur.