Madurai school student stabbed by gang dies

Madurai: In a gruesome incident, a class 12 student was stabbed to death by a three-member gang at East Veli Street in Madurai on Sunday night.

The incident occurred when Nagaraj (17) was returning home after visiting his grandmother's house at Vandiyur along with his parents on Sunday night. His parents Kumaresan Babu and Girija and his elder sister Shanmugha Priya had gone ahead to their home in Mahal Street in a two-wheeler and were waiting for him.

As Nagaraj did not come home even after a few hours, Kumaresan Babu tried to call him but his mobile phone was switched off. When he tried contacting his son repeatedly, a person responded stating that Nagaraj was lying in a pool of blood and bleeding profusely and asked them to rush to the spot. However, before they reached the place, Nagaraj had succumbed to his injury.

Nagaraj had sustained an injury on his thigh in the attack. The gang had escaped with his mobile phone, but had dropped his SIM card on the spot, said a police officer, adding that a person who belongs to the community of the deceased used that SIM on his mobile phone to respond to his parents' call. He handed over the SIM to Kumaresan Babu after he reached the spot.

"In the CCTV footage, we found three youths of the same age group attacking Nagaraj around 9. 50 pm before they ran away from the spot. But the footage was not clear," said a police officer. The incident occurred near the traffic police umbrella where a cop used to be on duty till 10 pm every day. However, the duty officer had left for home earlier on Sunday night.

As the deceased had sustained an injury in the thigh, the police suspect that somebody known to him may have been involved in this incident. "Ideally robbers wouldn't kill a person for snatching a mobile phone. We can zero in on the culprits only after we examine the call details," said the police officer.