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The Erode Town police on Thursday, July 3, arrested two Class 12 students for allegedly beating to death their schoolmate following a dispute over talking to girl students in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district.
The victim was identified as Adhithya, a 17-year-old Class 12 Biology group student at a government higher secondary school in Erode. According to the police, on Wednesday, the day of the incident, Adhithya was dropped off at school by his father but skipped class along with two of his friends.
Later that evening, an altercation broke out about 200 metres from the school campus. He sustained serious injuries in the assault and was taken to the Government Headquarters Hospital, where he succumbed to injuries.
Reports say that Adhithya had informed his father, Siva, about a previous quarrel with the accused students a week earlier. He was allegedly warned by the duo to stop speaking to girl students from their section.
On Thursday, July 3, Adithya’s parents and relatives gathered at the Erode North Police Station and argued with Deputy Superintendent of Police M Muthukumaran. They questioned why the school administration failed to inform them about his absence on that day. They alleged that four students and three outsiders had assaulted Adithya and demanded that all those involved should be arrested, including their parents.
Later the family was informed that the exact cause of death would be known only after the autopsy report was received. The body was sent to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Perundurai for post-mortem examination in the evening and handed over to the family.
The accused were also class 12 students from different sections of the same school. They were arrested on Thursday by the Erode Town police under sections 103 (murder) and 296(b) (uttering obscene words in public places) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). They were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and sent to an observation home in Coimbatore district.