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A 17-year-old Class 12 student who went missing from a village near Kulathur in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi district on Tuesday, March 10, evening was found dead the following day, sparking protests by her family and residents who alleged that police delayed registering their complaint and beginning a search.
According to the family, the girl left her house around 6 pm on Tuesday to relieve herself in a nearby forested area but did not return. When she failed to come back even after an hour, her parents and relatives began searching the surrounding areas.
When they could not locate her, the parents approached the Kulathur police station later that night to file a complaint. However, they were allegedly asked to approach the All Women Police Station (AWPS) in Vilathikulam, about 20 km away.
The family later alleged that officials there did not take their complaint seriously and directed them back to the Kulathur police station.
A missing person case was eventually registered on Wednesday, March 11, nearly 14 hours after the girl was reported missing. Police teams then began searching the area.
Around Wednesday afternoon, villagers spotted a body lying amid thorny bushes roughly 300 metres from the girl’s house and alerted the police. Officers reached the spot and confirmed that it was the missing girl.
Police officials said preliminary findings indicate that the girl had a strangulation injury on her neck and scratch marks on her body. Her clothes were intact. Authorities said it would be known after the post-mortem examination whether any sexual assault had taken place.
The body was sent to the Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital for autopsy.
Angered by what they described as police delay and inaction, the girl’s family members and villagers staged a road blockade on the Kurukkusalai–Rameshwaram highway near Vedanatham.
Protesters demanded the immediate arrest of those responsible and action against police personnel who allegedly failed to promptly register the complaint. They said that if the police had begun searching immediately after the girl went missing, she might have been rescued.
C Madhan, Superintendent of Police of Thoothukudi, visited the spot and held talks with the protesters.
Forensic teams, including fingerprint experts and a sniffer dog squad, were deployed at the scene as part of the investigation.
Local MLA G V Markendeyan also visited the family.
In a post on X, Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, MP from Thoothukudi and deputy general secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), said the murder of the minor girl was shocking and that police were working to identify and arrest those responsible. She added that strict action would be taken against those involved.
Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami urged the DMK government to immediately arrest all perpetrators and take strict legal action against everyone involved.
“Sexual assault and the lack of safety for women have become daily headlines in Tamil Nadu. Even after relatives filed a complaint with the police, they have acted with utter negligence. This shameful act has exposed the true nature of the DMK regime,” he said.
Former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai said, “It gives us immense pain to see news of such nature on a daily basis and the brutality that our girl children and sisters have to go through under this corrupt and incompetent DMK government.”
He added that Tamil Nadu had turned into a lawless state over the past five years and that people were being forced to endure such incidents.