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In Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district, a 13-year-old student from Anchetti village, was abducted on the evening of July 2 and found murdered the following day. The boy was identified as Rohith, a class 8 student from Anchetti in Denkanikottai taluk. His body was located in a forested area near the Anchetti-Hogenakal road. Local residents from Anchetti staged a protest citing police inaction.
According to the police, Rohith, the younger son of Sivaraj and Manju from Mavanatti village, had left home around 4 pm on Wednesday, July 2, to play with friends but never returned. When his family failed to locate him, they lodged a missing person complaint with the Anchetti police around 8 pm. However, the villagers allege that the police failed to act immediately.
With no update by the next morning, over 100 people, including Rohith’s family, gathered at the Anchetti bus stand on July 3 to demand urgent action.
While investigating CCTV footage, the police interrogated two suspects both named Madhevan and both aged 21. They were the ones last seen with the boy.
According to preliminary investigations, one of the suspects was in a relationship with a young woman from the same village. Rohith is said to have witnessed the man alone with the woman and allegedly threatened to report the incident. During police interrogation, the accused claimed this led them to lure Rohith into a car, where they drove him around for nearly three hours before killing him.
According to the police, they allegedly murdered Rohith and dumped his body in a forested area along the Anchetti-Hogenakal road.
Rohith’s family and villagers refused to hand over his body to the police for postmortem examination. They carried his body back to Anchetti and resumed their protest, blocking the road near the bus stand and demanding immediate action against those involved in the murder as well as departmental action against the police personnel who allegedly failed to respond promptly. The police have assured them that a fair investigation is underway.
The protest, which lasted for over three hours, severely disrupted traffic on the Denkanikottai-Hogenakkal Road. Police reinforcements were deployed under Additional Superintendent of Police (ADSP) S Namasivayam. Krishnagiri SP Thangadurai also visited the protest site to assess the situation.
The SP assured the villagers that a thorough investigation would be conducted and directed the transfer of Head Constable Chinnadurai, who had allegedly asked villagers to return the next day when they visited the station the previous night.
Later, the protest was called off around 4.30 pm after assurances were given, and Rohith’s body was sent to the Krishnagiri Government Medical College Hospital for autopsy.