The boy, a Class 8 student at a school in Karaikal, died in hospital. (Representational image)
A woman who was apparently jealous of her daughter's classmate doing better than her in school killed the 14-year-old boy by giving him a poisoned drink, the police in Puducherry said on Sunday.
The boy, a Class 8 student at the Servite English School in Karaikal, died in hospital.
The woman, Sakaya Rani Victoria, has been arrested. Investigators said she resented the boy's excellence in academics and other activities.
The murder has caused shock in Kairakal, a district in Puducherry.
The boy, Bala Manikandan, had gone to school on Saturday for rehearsals for their annual day.
When he returned home, he vomited, and told his parents that he had been unwell since he had a cold drink in school.
Bala was rushed to the Karaikal Government Hospital but he died during treatment.
The school told the parents that they had given the drink to Bala as they thought it had been sent from home.
"We did not give our son Bala any cold drink for school," his father Rajendran, who runs a fair price shop, said.
The devastated parents then spoke to the school guard, Devadhas, who said a person claiming to be Bala Manikandan's mother had handed him the drink and had asked him to pass it on to the boy.
CCTV footage confirmed that the person who handed the drink was Sakaya Rani Victoria, whose daughter studied in the same class.
Bala's parents filed a complaint with the police against Sakaya Rani Victoria.
The police said their investigations revealed that there was "competition in studies" among the students and Sakaya Rani Victoria didn't want Bala to participate in the annual day.
"Investigations are on both into the allegations against the accused and complaints of medical negligence by the hospital," District Collector I Mohamed Manzoor told NDTV.