One of the three minors accused of murdering their schoolmate in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district during a fight over wearing a “caste thread” will now be tried as an adult, police said on Thursday.
A Dalit student and two of his Muslim friends (all 16 years old) were kept at a state-run observation home on charges of murdering a 17-year-old boy.
“One of the Muslim boys, who is accused number 1, will be tried as an adult,” an investigating officer in the case told HT over phone from Tirunelveli. “On Tuesday, we submitted three required reports - social background, social investigation and a psychological report - from various departments required to try a minor as an adult to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB). The case has now been transferred to a designated children’s court in Tirunelveli.”
Activists, however, condemned the move to try the minor boy as an adult in the case, saying “this is not a planned murder”.
Under section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act, the JJB conducts preliminary assessment where a child in conflict with law aged from 16 years to 18 years who is alleged to have committed a heinous offence may transfer him to a children’s court for trial as an adult. A child tried as an adult can be awarded a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
{{/usCountry}}Under section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act, the JJB conducts preliminary assessment where a child in conflict with law aged from 16 years to 18 years who is alleged to have committed a heinous offence may transfer him to a children’s court for trial as an adult. A child tried as an adult can be awarded a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
{{/usCountry}}On April 25, a verbal altercation between Selva Suriya and the Dalit boy had turned physical during lunch break at Pallakkal Podhukodi government higher secondary school. The Dalit boy’s two Muslim friends came to his aid.
There are several versions of what had happened among the students. But the consensus is that they clashed over caste and specifically over the coloured thread which students wear on their wrists to display their caste identity.
Around 2.30 pm on April 25, the deceased class 12 student, who belongs to the Other Backward Class community Thevar, had questioned a Dalit boy, a class 11 student, about his coloured caste thread. They began to have a verbal altercation when the Dalit student found support from his two Muslim friends and one of them hit deceased Suriya’s ear with a brick.
Suriya went home that day after seeking first aid at a medical camp which was coincidently conducted that day by the district administration in school. On the same night, he developed excruciating pain, so his parents rushed him to Tirunelveli government hospital. He underwent surgery on April 26 for an internal blood clot in his brain. After the surgery was complete and while he was undergoing treatment, he succumbed to his injuries on April 31.
M Bharathan, founder of Tirunelveli-based Human Rights Council, said: “This is not a planned murder. This is an incident that has happened between children and should be viewed from a child’s point of view. One of the students has acted in self-defence. It is unnecessary for the child to be tried as an adult in this case.”