Three persons, including a quack, were arrested for causing the death of a Class X girl after she consumed abortion pills in Tiruvannamalai. Police said that the main accused, Murugan, 27, who was arrested under the POCSO Act, befriended the 15-year-old victim, a resident of Malaiyur village in Thandrampet block near Chengam in Tiruvannamalai, as he used to pick her up and drop her to the school in the neighbourhood since the re-opening of schools last year. Since he was known to the family, the girl’s father did not object to it. “The girl’s mother had died years ago. She was living with her father and two younger brothers in the village,” police said.
On Monday, she complained of stomach pain to the accused, Murugan, who sought the help of his relative in the village, C. Prabhu, 37. The duo took the girl to a quack, J. Kanthi, 70, a resident of Reddiyarpalayam village, who gave the girl pills to abort the foetus. After consuming the pills, police said that Murugan took her to the school on his bike. However, the girl collapsed on the way, forcing him to admit her at the government hospital in Thanipadi village where doctors declared her brought dead. The body was sent to the Tiruvannamalai Government Medical College Hospital for postmortem. Police said, a few months ago, Murugan had given her pills to void the foetus after she reported pregnancy. Police also found that the quack had been functioning in the neighbourhood for many years since the death of her husband, V. Jayaraj, who worked as a health assistant in a private hospital in Chennai before starting a clinic in his native Reddiyarpalayam. After his death, his wife Kanthi continued it, the police said. Based on the complaint by the victim’s father, accused Murugan, Prabhu and quack Kanthi were arrested by Thanipadi police. The police booked Murugan under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for rape of the minor girl and the other two were arrested under IPC. They were lodged in the Central Prison, Vellore, the police said.
