Eleven boys ran away from the Government Children’s Home (Boys), in Chengalpattu, late Monday night.
The Chengalpattu town police are on the look out for the boys.
According to police, the boys — convicted in theft cases in Chennai, Tirunelveli, Tirupur, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Dindigul, Tiruchi, Pudukottai and Kancheepuram districts — all in the age group 16-18, fled the Special Home, run by the department of social defence under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
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A complaint in this regard was lodged with the Chengalpattu town police on Tuesday by the Home authorities. They stated in the complaint that the boys left the Home after breaking open a back door late in the night. Their absence was noticed on Tuesday when the morning roll call was taken.
According to the district child welfare officer, Dhanasekara Pandian, the Home, which earlier functioned at Vellore, was shifted to Chengalpattu in 2009. A total of 30 boys were staying in the Home and undergoing ‘refinement’ courses, apart from attending classes at a special school run within the Home.
Mr. Pandian said the impulse to meet parents and relatives, or to revive their addiction, were generally reasons for juveniles fleeing such Homes. He said on a previous occasion, a few years ago, nine boys had fled the Home. While some of them came back within two days, stating they had left only to meet their parents and relatives, the others were traced by the police and brought back to the Home later, he added.
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The State government had allotted a sum of Rs.25 lakh under social defence–part II scheme for raising the height of the Home’s compound wall in the financial year 2009-10, immediately after the shift from Vellore to Chengalpattu.