The Government Observation Home here, after a gap of 15 months, has witnessed the escape of 12 juvenile offenders, who fled the secured enclosure near the new bus stand here on Tuesday night.
In the immediate earlier incident, three boys, aged between 15 and 17, escaped from the home on October 8, 2016. However, the police waiting at their native places of Ramanputhur in Nagercoil, Bhoothapandi near Nagercoil and Donavoor near Valliyoor nabbed them on the next day as they entered their birthplaces to meet their family members and the friends.
The trio, who escaped from the home around 6.45 p.m., spent the night at Palayamkottai itself and left for their destinations on the next day by bus with the dream of meeting their family members and the friends. However, the waiting police trapped them once they landed.
“The juvenile offenders, after managing to escape from the observation home even as serving the sentence, would usually head only for their native places as they are not hardcore criminals, who would find a suitable place other than the easily traceable familiar spots to hide. So, we’d dispatch teams to the native places of the juvenile offenders whenever they escape from the observation home,” said a police officer here.
In the latest incident also, a 17-year-old offender from Kovilpatti, who was arrested in connection with the murder of a jewellery showroom owner there recently, managed to reach Kovilpatti on Wednesday morning after escaping from the Home on Tuesday night.
Similarly, another escapee was picked up on Wednesday evening at his native place under Seththur police station limits in Virudhunagar district.
