At approximately 10:30 am on Saturday, a 21-year-old man walked into Zilla Parishad High School in Raptadu mandal, Anantapur district, during a maths class and attacked two Class 10 girls with a tree-cutting chainsaw.
Teacher Rajeshwari was in the classroom when the accused walked in, presumably as a campus repair worker (the campus was being repaired). The security guard took him for a worker. He went straight to 14-year-old Gopika in the front row and attacked her in the face, neck, head and back. The students all ran for it. Lakshmi, a classmate, tried to get in between and protect her, and was injured in the leg. Gopika went down in a pool of blood. The man left the chainsaw behind and ran off.
Doctors at the Government General Hospital in Anantapur said a flap of one side of Gopika’s face had been cut off, with the muscles in her neck and back also cut. She arrived in an unconscious state, in very unstable condition, and is expected to need plastic surgery. They’re in the process of arranging to shift her by air ambulance to Bengaluru.
Police later arrested the accused (Hemanth alias Dummu). He is a relative of Gopika (from Nagalur in the Dharmavaram mandal near Dharmavaram railway station).
The initial inquiry shows that he had been harassing her after she had rejected him, and she had, in fact, threatened to tell her parents about his behaviour.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu called the attack ‘barbaric’, said he is monitoring Gopika’s recovery, and ordered the maximum possible legal action. The investigation is ongoing.