Twelve juveniles escaped from the Government Observation Home here around 11 p.m. on Tuesday after allegedly thrashing the warder and a police constable on duty.
While two of them were nabbed shortly after midnight when they were walking along the South bypass Road, another was secured at Kovilpatti on Wednesday morning. The fourth was nabbed in Tirunelveli town. Efforts are on to nab the remaining eight.
Police said that 32 juveniles in conflict with law from Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, Virudhunagar and Sivaganga districts, were lodged in the Government Observation Home near the new bus stand. They were staying in two separate dormitories based on their age group.
One of the boys in the dormitory where the boys above 15 years were kept complained of ‘acute stomach pain’ around 11 p.m. and two other inmates alerted the warder Shanmugaraj.
When the warder came to the dormitory, the juveniles attacked him. After taking the keys from him, they also thrashed the constable Arunachalam with broken furniture, stones and steel rods, police said.
“Of the 17 boys in that dormitory, 12 escaped while the remaining five preferred to stay back. They took the bike of Mr. Shanmugaraj also,” an officer said.
As the Tirunelveli city and the district police were alerted, night patrolling was intensified across the district, particularly in the twin towns of Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai. Tirunelveli Police Commissioner Kapil Kumar Saratkar visited the spot. Melapalayam police have registered case under various sections of the IPC.
Deputy Director of Department of Social Justice, Madurai Region, N. Rathnam, visited the Home on Wednesday and held enquiries with the Home’s Superintendent (in-charge) S. Dhanaseelan Samraj and other staff.
