Even as the police arrested three persons on Tuesday, including two women, on charges of involvement in the thrashing of three girls in public for allegedly stealing money from a tailor shop, the parents of the girls reportedly disowned their children, virtually leaving the girls in the lurch.
The three teenagers, including a mentally challenged girl, were tied to a lamppost and beaten up by a group of persons. They were rescued by the police.
All of them daily wage earners, the parents reportedly refused to come to police station where the girls were kept after they were rescued from the mob. When called for further inquiry, the parents claimed they had disowned them since they had brought “disrepute” to their families. When contacted, a parent asked: “How can we go to a police station? They are not boys.”
Town Police Station Inspector Suryamoorthy told The Hindu that they tried in vain to convince the girls’ parents to cooperate with them. “But we could not,” he said. Police, however, registered a case under Section 380 (theft) of Indian Penal Code against the girls, based on a complaint preferred by the tailor. Later, they were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board which sent them to a Government Protective Home.
Police also registered a case under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC against the three persons who were part of the mob that beat up the girls. They were remanded in judicial custody. They are searching for a few more persons who roughed up the girls.
A. Xavier, Chairman, Child Welfare Committee, said the three girls were found to be below the age of 18. “It is an uncivilised act to tie and beat them up. The public should have shown restraint and handed over the girls to police if they had any grouse against them. We will step in to provide them counselling and also take rehabilitation measures once the legal process is over,” he said.
The girls – all school dropouts – were neighbours and used to be seen together wherever they went, people in their locality claimed.
