The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Seven Juvenile Home escapees caught

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Sunday, May 02, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Seven Juvenile Home escapees caught

By S. Ramu

CHITYAL (NALGONDA DT.), MAY 1. Seven out of nine juvenile offenders who had escaped from the Juvenile Special Home at Saidabad on April 29 were arrested by Chityal police at Veliminedu village last night.

On being alerted by villagers, a police party rushed to Veliminedu and took the seven juvenile offenders -- Sayyad Ibrahim (14), Venugopal (14), Karthik (14), Sayyad Basha (17), all hailing from Kuppam in Chittoor district, Dasari Ramesh (12) of Vijayawada, Bharatam Prasad (18) of Bobbili in Vizianagaram district and Gore Mallesh (15) of Rapur in Nellore district -- into custody. They were handed over to the Saidabad police, with whom Juvenile Home officials lodged a complaint.

According to the SI, T. Anand Reddy, the seven children reached Veliminedu on foot after escaping from the Home by cutting the window grill of their barrack. Three villagers -- Koti Reddy, Krishna Reddy and Yadaiah -- found them moving at a bus stop under suspicious circumstances. When there was a mismatch of versions given by the children, the villagers alerted the Chityal police.

The boys, who were planning to reach Vijayawada by a train to find a job to eke out a living, complained of shabby treatment by Juvenile Home authorities. "Officials make senior inmates beat us when they find fault with us. The officials are not allowing us to see our parents,'' they said.

The police maintained that it was the second vain bid by Prasad and Ramesh. The escapees said that they did not know the whereabouts of the other two -- S.K. Sundar alias Basha (17) of Nandigama and M.Chinna (15) of Rangampet in Chittoor district -- who took to their heels after escaping from the Home.

Bone of contention

The bone of contention between the officials and inmates of the Juvenile Special Home at Saidabad was a cable connection to a television in the Home. "Officials have taken us to task for asking them to solve a problem with regard to the cable connection. As there was a problem in the connection, we were missing TV programmes,'' said Dasari Ramesh, one among the seven arrested.

Irked by the officials' apathy in solving their "problem,'' the juveniles went on rampage and allegedly destroyed a tube-light and a carom-board. "Later we realised that we are going to land in soup for the protest. It is for sure that officials would ask some of the senior inmates to beat us,'' another juvenile, B. Prasad, rued. He also alleged that the food was also not good.

According to the boys, being provoked by an inmate, Surender Reddy, after the altercation with the officials, they decided to escape. They cut the iron rod of their barrack's window with a hacksaw. "First, Sunder and Chinna sneaked out, we followed them and were waited outside for Surender Reddy to come out. But, he ditched us by raising an alarm to our surprise,'' another boy said.

They did not want to go back to their native places as they could be trapped by the police. "We decided to reach Vijayawada to find a job. In fact, we wanted to reach the city by a train,'' Venugopal said. Left penniless, the boys set out to find a nearest railway station. They ate mangoes plucked from roadside trees. They reached Veliminedu village abutting the national highway and decided to take rest for a night. The villagers, who were advised by the local police to keep a tab on the movement of unknown persons, asked for their credentials. When the boys failed to give convincing answers, they tipped off the police.

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