Their great escape had all the elements of a Tamil potboiler and the strategy, a winning one. While a group of inmates created a diversion, a gang of boys lodged in the Government Observation Home on Purasawalkam High Road at Kellys near Chennai Central Station scaled 8ft high wall and escaped from the “correction home”.

Sadly for them, their new-earned freedom for many did not last long as 20 of them were caught within six hours of their escape. Morning at around breakfast time, there was a huge commotion in the dining area of the Observation home and all the guards rushed there to inspect what it was and to douse the frayed tempers.

Even as these guards were thus engaged, a gang of inmates, all boys, scaled the perimeter wall and escaped by jumping out and ran away. Although in the beginning it was thought that only 20 boys escaped, on closer scrutiny and roll call inside the home it turned out that 33 of the total 78 housed there had made good their escape.

But, within few hours, 20 of them were rounded up from nearby areas where they were hiding. A few who had returned on their own, feared the cops inside and tried to slit their throats. Two of the boys were admitted to hospital with injuries inflicted by sharp glass object.

But their plan was foolproof as the morning drama unfolded. It was captured on phone camera by a passerby and was playing out on television channels.

As news of the escape spread, parents of those missing children congregated outside the juvenile home and demanded that they be traced. Their questions if their won ward was present or missing met with stony silence as the policemen on duty were trying to ascertain who was present and who was missing from the registers.

But for the parents, it was an anxious moment.

For, Jayapavitra, mother of one of the boys lodged in the observation home, the police had wrongly framed her son in a criminal case whereas he was only caught for driving without license. His mother maintained that her son was innocent.