MADURAI: The Madurai Government Observation Home that has been facing frequent problems from inmates has been allowed to transfer seven of them by the juvenile justice board magistrate and all of them were taken to a similarly facility at Chennai on Saturday.
The facility for juvenile criminals was mired in controversy after two incidents of escape involving the inmates. In the first incident in August, seven inmates managed to flee and in the latest one that happened on Tuesday (Dec 2) 10 of them escaped from the facility. In both the cases, the technique adopted by the juveniles were similar that is they tampered with the grill of a window and sneaked out. Of the 10, four were caught within hours of their exit. Meanwhile, on Friday a fight broke out between two groups at the home in which three suffered injuries and were taken to the hospital. In view of the increasing incidences of rude behaviour of the juveniles, the home management filed a petition at Juvenile Justice Magistrate Court on Friday claiming that a group of seven boys were behaving violently and sought its permission to transfer them.
According to the police, these boys were repeat offenders and were frequently lodged in the home during the last two years. As they were being lodged in the same home back and again, they had developed an ‘attitude’ to dominate. So they abused others both physically and sexually.
As there was no sign of change in the ‘rude’ boys, the home management sought the permission of the Juvenile Justice Board Magistrate to transfer the seven juveniles to some other facility, which was accepted.