Chennai, July 04: A 13-year-old boy was shot dead after he sneaked into a restricted army residential complex behind the Tamil Assembly to pluck fruits.
Dilshan was the son of day-labourers who live in the nearby Indira Nagar slums, many of whose residents work as domestic helps in the army quarters, police said.
The boy’s family alleged that he was shot in the head by an army sentry when the teenager had gone with three friends to pluck fruits in the complex behind the historic Fort St. George, which houses the Assembly and the secretariat. The other boys escaped.
Dilshan succumbed to his injures in the ICU of a government hospital late this evening, a few hours after the 2.15pm firing, the police said. Around 300 residents, including women, children and the elderly, blocked traffic for over two hours demanding strong action against the army sentry who had fired.
Army officials claimed, however, that there was no armed sentry. “In this colony, there is no armed guard. Whether a civilian has shot (at the boy), whether an army man shot, whether a policeman shot, I cannot comment at this stage,” Brigadier (administration) Sashi Nair said.
The argument did not appear to have convinced chief minister Jayalalithaa, who asked the army brass to hand over the “accused” to the police and announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family. “The jawan could have easily realised the 13-year-old who tried to climb a tree was not an extremist or terrorist. It is condemnable that the boy was shot. Such firing is not acceptable,” she said.
An army statement given to PTI read: “Full co-operation is being provided to the local police…. Police is interrogating two civilian boys separately.”
–PTI–