Man held for selling liquor to student

In a proactive step that could go a long way in curbing liquor addiction among teens, the Madurai police has arrested an employee of the State-owned TASMAC wine shop for selling liquor to a school student.

The action followed a complaint lodged by the headmistress of a Government school here after a student landed up in the classroom in an inebriated condition on Thursday.

Police said, when the Government school (name withheld on ethical grounds) reopened on Thursday after Deepavali, a class XII teacher was taken aback to find one of his students sloshed. The boy was not even able to balance himself on the bench. The teacher promptly informed the headmistress about the incident. Interestingly, the headmistress did not stop with the usual disciplinary action that is taken against students in such cases. Instead, she informed the police.

An Inspector who visited the school inquired with the boy as to how he had sourced the liquor. The boy told him that he had purchased it from a TASMAC outlet near the school.  The Inspector called the Madurai SP V Balakrishnan who instructed him to register a case. The police later arrested the TASMAC outlet employee Murugesan.  “He admitted to having sold the bottle to him but said the boy was not wearing uniform making it difficult to identify if he was a minor,” a police officer said.