In a chilling reminder of the murder of Class II student Pradyuman Thakur in Ryan school toilet in Gurugram last year, a Class VII girl student took a Class I boy to school toilet and stabbed him in stomach and chest in lucknow on Tuesday. The victim, six-year-old Ritik, is recuperating in a hospital and is out of danger, doctors said. Two days after the horrific incident at Brightland School in Triveni Nagar in UP’s Capital, the accused girl has been sent to a Juvenile Justice Home, while school principal Rachit Manas has been arrested for negligence and hiding evidence.
“For getting the school closed, the girl attacked Ritik… The knife used by the 11-year-old girl has been seized and the accused girl’s hair recovered from the victim has been sent for forensic examination… The school principal has been arrested for negligence and hiding evidence. He did not inform the police of the incident,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Kumar.
Prima facie it appears that someone might have told the girl that a holiday could be announced by the school authorities only if there was death of any student, said lucknow District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the trauma centre here and talked to doctors, enquiring about the well-being of Ritik. The boy was rushed to the trauma centre. Dr Sandeep Tewari, who was treating the boy, said the victim had deep wounds on chest and stomach that “seem to have been inflicted with a knife-like sharp object”.
The victim’s father Rajesh had on Wednesday said, “I was informed by the school that my son is injured. He has been attacked with knife by a girl.” Following which an FIR was lodged in this connection, and panic gripped the school as other parents charged the school administration with trying to hush up the case.
Taking note of the incident after the picture of the victim went viral and TV channels ran stories, District Inspector of Schools (DIoS) Mukesh Kumar Singh issued a notice to the school seeking clarification as to why legal action should not be initiated against it. “The school has not provided information to our office regarding the incident after registration of the FIR. A clarification has been sought from the school,” Singh said.
Seven-year-old Pradyuman of Gurgaon’s Ryan International School was found dead with his throat slit by a sharp-edged weapon in the school’s washroom in September last year in which a 16-year-old student has been charged with committing the crime.