Virudhunagar betters its own record

With a success rate of 95.48 per cent, Virudhunagar district continued to reign supreme in the State in 10th examination (SSLC) overall pass percentage for the 22nd straight year.

In fact, the district has bettered its record registered in the previous years. Last year, 93.69 per cent of students had passed out. This year, 20,740 students out of 21,721 who appeared for the examinations have succeeded.

Chief Educational Officer S. Nagaraja Murugan attributed the success to the untiring efforts of teachers. “It is not just that more number of students have passed. But we have achieved more than that. The number of centum in subjects and the number of schools recording 100 per cent success rate too have gone up substantially.”

This year, the district had secured 858 centum, including one in English, as against mere 145 centum got in subjects last year. A total of 619 students had got maximum marks in Mathematics, 230 in Science and eight in Social Science.

Aruppukottai Educational District, comprising backward regions such as Tiruchuzhi and Narikudi, has bettered the Virudhunagar educational district.

Azhagiri acquitted in murder case

M.K. Azhagiri, elder son of Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, and 12 others accused in the murder of former Dravida Munnetra Kazagam Minister, ‘Pasumpon’ T. Kiruttinan, were acquitted by a Chittoor court on Thursday.

Delivering the judgment in a packed court hall, Principal District and Sessions Judge P. Durga Prasad held that the charges against the 13 accused were “not proved” and declared them “not guilty.” The accused included Deputy Mayor of Madurai Corporation P.M. Mannan, and several other cadres of the ruling DMK.

Mr. Azhagiri and others were booked under various sections including 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 109 (abetment to commit an offence) of IPC. The trial court examined 82 of the 114 persons named as witnesses in the case. The police had thrown a security blanket around the court as a precautionary measure.