CHENNAI: Tiruvottiyur police have secured 12 juveniles in conflict with the law in connection with the broad-daylight murder of a Class 12 student, Dhanush (18), near the Ajax bus terminus on Friday. The police said the juveniles include 10 students studying in the same school as the victim and two others from a different school.
According to the police, Dhanush, a student at a government higher secondary school, got into an altercation with a 17-year-old Class 11 student of the same school over a trivial issue. The police suspect that the Class 11 student, harbouring a previous grudge, subsequently gathered his associates and allegedly assaulted the victim.
Following the assault that resulted in the death shortly after school on Friday evening, the Tiruvottiyur police formed a special team and registered a case under sections 103 (murder), 190 (unlawful assembly), 191 (rioting) of the BNS, and sections 3 and 4 of the SC/ST (PoA) Act.
The police secured the juveniles and questioned them to ascertain their individual roles in the attack and the involvement of others, if any, following which all 12 were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) for further legal proceedings and lodged at a special home for children in conflict with the law.
A senior police official told TNIE, “Based on our findings so far, there is no evidence of drug consumption among the juveniles. They (students) were secured from their respective residences. Meanwhile, the postmortem examination of the deceased was completed on Saturday, and the body was handed over to the family for the final rites.”
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Udhayanidhi Stalin condemned the murder. In a social media post, Udhayanidhi alleged that Dhanush was beaten to death by a group of around 30 people after he questioned the use and sale of drugs in the area.
Udhayanidhi said the shocking incident occurred just days after a college student, Amudhan, was killed in Coimbatore for allegedly questioning a drug gang. He urged the state government to conduct a detailed inquiry into drug use in schools and colleges, identify those involved in supplying drugs, and ascertain the reasons behind drug use among students. He also called for counselling and awareness programmes among students, saying they should be made to understand that violence was not a solution to any problem.
CPM state secretary P Shanmugam condemned the incident and urged the government to arrest everyone involved and take stringent action against the use and sale of drugs in schools, colleges and hostels.