Tumakuru: Heart rending cries filled the air as T. Ramesh, the father of Gouthami, the 17-year-old girl killed during the shootout at the residential school in Bengaluru, performed her last rites at Pavagada on Thursday afternoon.

Gautami’s father, T. Ramesh lit the pyre at the cremation ground on the outskirts of Pavagada town.

The body was taken in a procession from Gautami’s house in Pathanjalinagara to the cremation ground in which former minister, Ventaramanappa, MLA, K.M. Thimmarayappa, MLC, Sharavana and hundreds of people participated.

There were demands from Venkataramanappa, a former minister that the State government cancel the licence given to run the school.

Ms. Rajeshwari, Gautami’s aunt addressed a press conference on Thursday, and lamented that though the school management takes fees amounting to lakhs of rupees, the school failed to provide safety to the students, especially girls. She demanded the immediate closure of the school. She suspected the inovlement of the school management in Gautami’s murder quoting the circumstances under which they were informed of her death. She said, “the school management called to inform Gautami’s parents that their daughter had fallen from the second floor and has been injured. Only through media did they come to know about truth”.

Dr. Nagaveni, another aunt of Gautami, was visibly upset at the character assassination in the media. She said that it was not correct on the part of some news channels to speak ill of her character and try to tarnish her image. These things have deeply hurt the parents, relatives and friends of Gautami. She demanded an impartial probe into the death of the girl.

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