VILLUPURAM: Parents of two juveniles, who were illegally detained and manhandled by a special sub-inspector, said they will approach the human rights commission, as they have lost hopes of getting justice from senior police officials.
According to sources, Joseph and Vicky (name changed, 15) are cousins, the eldest sons of painter Arockiyasamy (38) and his sister M Mala (33) respectively, who live with their spouses in St Xavier’s colony here.Both are class IX students of Keelperumbakkam GHSS.
On the night of Easter, Joseph and Vicky, who went to attend church with their families, got together with some other friends to play hide-and-seek. They scaled the church walls and got into the adjacent St Xavier’s school to hide. To their surprise, they found a portion of the school’s terrace littered with currency in the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
They scooped up a handful and after recounting the adventure to the other boys, ran back to the church. Later upon counting, they found that they had collected Rs 10,000 and Rs 10,500 each.
They bought themselves new clothes and two mobile handsets, and handed over the rest of the money - Rs 3,000 and Rs 2,000 - to their parents. However, fearing the retribution that could follow a confession of having scaled the school’s walls, they told their parents that they found the money from the railway tracks nearby.
Some neighbours who noticed the new clothes and phones, and heard the story of money on the school’s terrace, informed the town police, who rounded up all the boys, who were playing hide-and-seek that day. When they inspected the school terrace and premises, they didn’t find anything.
Station SSI Ayyanar released the other boys but Joseph and Vicky were taken to a nearby police quarters and reportedly beaten up mercilessly. The parents allege that they were trying to get them to confess to a theft that they didn’t commit.
The police had nothing concrete about the source of the money, but were trying to link it to a recent incident of theft, in which Rs 1,00,000 was stolen from a house in the nearby Thakka street, the parents alleged.
The parents tried to reason with the SSI, surrendering the phones that the boys had bought, and even promising to repay Rs 20,000 that the boys had collected together. The SSI reportedly threw the phones back at their faces and told them that the boys will be released only if they paid up Rs 1,00,000.
When the boys refused to make a false confession, Ayyanar reportedly kicked them with his boots on, and stamped on their groins. He then threatened to include their parents in the case, if the boys didn’t own up.
Joseph was admitted to the Government Mundiyambakkam Hospital, from where he was discharged on Monday. After this, the SSI let the boys go. Both of them were unable to attend the annual exams on Tuesday because they were still weak.
The parents roped in advocate Luciya to file a petition to Villupuram Superintendent of Police.