VILLUPURAM: Hours after the body of a missing schoolgirl was discovered in a well, the girl's family alleged murder and blocked the Gingee - Tiruvannamalai road in protest, on Thursday morning.
K Janani, a 16-year-old student from Barathanthangal village near Gingee, was in Class 11 at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School. On Wednesday evening, she left shortly after returning home from school and was still wearing her school uniform. After did not return, her family initiated a search. They located her slippers several meters away from a well near Alampoondi Lake, close to the village, and found her body in the water.
The Sathyamangalam police were informed, and retrieved the body with the help of rescue personnel from the Gingee fire station, on Wednesday night. Her body was transported to the Government Villupuram Medical College Hospital in Mundiampakkam for an autopsy.
A case of suspicious death was filed, with the police commencing their inquiries into the matter. The girl's family, however, suspected foul play and urged the authorities to treat it as a murder case. Along with villagers, the family blocked the Gingee - Tiruvannamalai road, demanding that a murder case be filed, on Thursday morning. The police tried to pacify the protesters and dispersed the gathering, and cleared the road.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior official from the Sathyamangalam police station said no conclusive evidence of foul play had been found at the scene, and the circumstances surrounding the girl's death remain uncertain, as of Thursday evening. "Further investigation is underway, and we are awaiting the autopsy report. Until then, we cannot draw any conclusions," the official stated.