A 16-year-old boy was found dead in a kammoi (waterbody) in Madurai’s Koodal Pudur on September 6.
Initial reports said the child’s family has alleged an honour killing. Police sources TNM spoke to, however, insist that this is a case of accidental drowning.
The family has alleged that the boy was killed because he was in touch with a girl from another community. Both are from different intermediate castes. Police sources also told TNM that the boy’s parents have refused to accept his body unless a murder case is registered.
According to sources, the boy and his friends had gone swimming in the kammoi. CCTV footage from the area allegedly shows them attempting to use styrofoam sheets as flotation devices when the boy went underwater.
When the boy’s friends were unable to pull him out, they panicked and eventually fled the scene, sources said. The boy’s parents registered a missing person’s complaint on September 5, and his body was recovered from the kammoi on September 6, police said.
Additionally, the postmortem report has not shown any proof of violence and is consistent with signs of accidental drowning, sources further said.
A missing person’s case was originally registered based on the parents’ complaint. The FIR has now been altered to BNSS section 194 to investigate the case as an unnatural death, sources added.