A 13-year-old boy was brutally attacked in a classroom at the Government Boys’ Higher Secondary School at Pandalgudi in Virudhunagar district on Friday morning. The victim, a Std. VIII student, suffered multiple injuries and died while being taken to hospital.
G. Baskaran, a native of Ayan Karisalkulam in Tuticorin district, was repeatedly stabbed by Mareeswaran, 18, also from the same village.
The school authorities said the incident occurred at 8.10 a.m. Students from Karisalkulam normally reached the school early because of the bus schedule. The accused had allegedly scaled the compound wall and entered the campus from the rear.
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Gopal, father of the deceased, who worked as a labourer in Mumbai, said the accused had earlier kidnapped his son and four other boys of the village and administered poison to them at Tiruchendur. “However, the police registered only a case of attempt to commit suicide by the boys and did not investigate it properly.”
Police sources said a case of boy missing was registered by the Masarpatti police in Tuticorin district on September 2, 2013, and also an attempt to commit suicide by the Tiruchendur police. However, action was dropped in both cases.
“The accused kept visiting the school even after he dropped out, and the school authorities did not take note of this,” Gopal said. His daughter Ashwini, 16, was studying in the girls’ wing of the school.
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Superintendent of Police S. Maheswaran said personal enmity could be the motive. Four teams were formed to arrest the accused. Tension prevailed outside the school after relatives of the deceased blocked the road, demanding that the accused be arrested immediately.