Chennai:
The owner of a school and its principal are among 10 people found guilty today of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide for a fire in which more than 90 children were burnt alive in Tamil Nadu in 2004.
Their punishment will be decided later today by a court in Kumbakonam in the Thanjavur district in the central part of the state.
11 others including three teachers have been acquitted. The teachers had been found guilty in an earlier investigation of abandoning nursery children after the fire began.
The tragedy was one of the worst involving school children in India. Those who died were between the ages of five and nine.
In July 2004, a fire in the school's kitchen spread quickly to the thatched roof, imprisoning nursery children in a firetrap. 94 children died. The investigation that followed found that basic fire safety rules had been ignored. There were no fire extinguishers, for example, and the school, which had nearly 900 students, had only one exit.
The outrage prompted the state government, headed by J Jayalalithaa, to order an inquiry which concluded that local officials had colluded with the school's management to give it licenses and clearances. The plan detailing the school's layout was sanctioned by education officials without visiting the school. The thatched roof used where meals were served to the children had also been cleared despite it being illegal.