145;Teachers locked gates, and fled146;

When the police met the children at their new school 8212; Saraswathi Vidyalaya 8212; today, they were quite vocal 8212; no sobs, no tears, some plain angry. Like Brinda, a class V student, who says, 8216;8216;I will go to any court and say the teachers did not help us. They ran away.8217;8217; And in an aggressive tone, she asks: 8216;8216;Will they be punished?8217;8217;

This is the question haunting the parents who lost their children. 8216;8216;If the teachers had not locked the gates, my only child would have been alive,8217;8217; says Akila, staring at her son Venkatesh8217;s picture .

While the school correspondent, 10 Education Department officials, the local Tehsildar, and a private engineer have been arrested, police have so far only questioned the teachers. Of the 23 teachers, only 16 have appeared, while the rest are yet to be traced.

However, the Assistant District SP, Kalyanasundaram, who is investigating the case, says the 8216;8216;responsibility of the teachers would be fixed soon.8217;8217;