Police have also informed the family members to cooperate and hand over the boys to the home if they turn up there
Representational image
Chennai: In the third such incident in ten months, juveniles at the Government observation home in Kellys escaped from the facility. This time, as many as 17 juvenile delinquents escaped from the Kellys home on Tuesday morning after breaking open the gate on the rear entrance. Police said that two of the boys returned to the home while the search is on for 15 others, which also includes a juvenile named in a murder case.
The incident happened around 8 am when only two persons Suresh, a guard and warden Lewis were on duty, police sources said. About 40 minor boys are housed in this facility where 23 of them reside in the ground floor and the rest on the first floor.
Suresh was helping the conservancy staff in the campus and Lewis was inspecting the inmates on the first floor when 17 of the boys on the ground floor made their way out. They broke open the grille gate, which was weak and scaled the compound wall and escaped through the graveyard on the backside of the home.
Secretariat Colony police were alerted and a team inspected the home. “There seems to be a lack of manpower in the detention home. We have alerted other police stations to screen public places to look for the boys,” said a police officer.
The CCTV cameras in the facility are also not functioning, police said. "All the escaped juveniles are undertrials and belong to the age group of 15-17. Most of them are from the city and neighbouring districts," the officer added.
Police have also informed the family members to co-operate and hand over the boys to the home if they turn up there. "We are also looking if they have any friends or relatives in the city and would be checking there too," the officer said.
In July this year, 14 of the inmates escaped after attacking the warden. While police managed to catch 10 of them in two days, four of them were picked up two weeks later by police when they came to watch a movie at a city theater.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
Next Story
