THOOTHUKUDI: In a case of suspicious death, a 10-year-old boy who went missing on Monday afternoon was found dead on a neighbour’s terrace at Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi early on Tuesday.
A gold chain and a ring were missing from his body. Three people have been detained in the case, police sources said.
A postmortem examination has been conducted and the results are awaited to establish the cause of the death, police sources said.
The deceased Class 5 boy of municipal higher secondary school was identified as M Karuppasamy was a resident of Muthuramalinga Street of Gandhi Nagar in Kovilpatti. Police spotted the unconscious boy around 6.30 am on the terrace and rushed him to Kovilpatti Government Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. A senior police official said the police suspect that the body could have been dumped on the terrace just a few hours before it was spotted, as no body was found at the spot during an earlier search around 4 am.
Karuppasamy’s father Karthick Murugan, a construction worker, and mother Balasundari, a matchstick worker, had left for work on Monday and the boy, who was unwell for the past few days, had skipped school and stayed at home. His elder brother, Manikandan (12), had gone to school. Karuppasamy’s grandmother who arrived at the house to care for the boy found him missing and soon a search ensued.