In a shocking incident, a clash broke out between two groups in the Borstal School, (home for law offenders who are minors) at Melur near here on Saturday, in which two inmates and the warden were injured.
The Borstal School situated inside a huge campus, also houses the Melur magistrate court, taluk office, sub-treasury office, fire and rescue service station, police station and MLA’s office, among others.
The School has 84 inmates, some of whom are above 20 years of age, and who were accused in grave crimes, including murder, attempt to murder, rape, robbery and waylaying.
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Madurai rural police said that two accused, who were cited in a murder case of a panchayat president of Sakkimangalam in Silaiman police station limits, were detained in the Borstal School for the last 50 days.
At around 7 a.m., when the two accused were about to come out of their room to have bath, trouble erupted. Some 25 inmates allegedly ganged up against the duo and beat them up. It is suspected that the inmates had used steel buckets, unused fluorescent tubes, utensils meant for cooking, et al, as weapons to beat them up. The warden, who intervened, could not restore peace immediately. In the melee, he was also not spared. He was bleeding profusely.
Hearing the commotion, Melur AIADMK MLA R. Sami, who was in his office at the time, rushed to the spot. He accompanied the injured warden Shanmugam to hospital and informed senior police officers. Though officers said that a minor wordy altercation had snowballed into exchange of blows, a fact-finding team from Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO, visited the school and interviewed the injured persons. According to a press release, the two accused were ‘targeted’ and beaten up just because they were Dalits. “Trouble had started after a non-Dalit from the same locality was detained in the Borstal School recently. Even the warden refused to speak to our team members,” said A. Kathir, Executive Director. He demanded registration of cases under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against all the accused who had assaulted the two Dalits and expressed concern that Dalits were not spared even in such homes.
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Madurai Central Prisons Superintendent Arivudainambi ordered shifting of 12 accused to Borstal Schools in Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts in a bid to restore peace, a prison official said and added that the police had registered cases.