On February 4, 2017, students at the Government Syed Murthuza Higher Secondary School in Tiruchy were told to assemble by 8 a.m. Two Tamil Nadu ministers, Vellamandi N. Natarajan and S. Valarmathi, were coming to hand out free bicycles. The ministers arrived at about 11:30. By then two girls in Class 11 had fainted and been taken to hospital. The ministers said they had been held up at another function.