A day after a 14-year-old boy was declared dead at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, three 15-year-old students were apprehended on Friday for allegedly beating him up in the school washroom. The police said another student involved in the incident is absconding.
The boy was found unconscious in the washroom on Thursday morning after which he was rushed to a private hospital by the teachers.
The hospital referred him to the GTB Hospital where he was declared brought dead.
The boy’s family alleged that he was beaten to death after which a case on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was registered and investigation taken up. “We scanned the CCTV footage and found that the victim went inside the washroom and four boys followed him ,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (North East) A.K. Singla said.
Mr. Singla also said the fourth accused had been identified but when his house was raided he, along with his family, was found to be absconding.
The victim’s post mortem was conducted on Friday and his body handed over to the family for last rites.
Recalling the incident, the victim’s 28-year-old cousin said the family was informed by the boy’s classmates that the five got into a fight during the prayer assembly early morning. “We were told that there was a fight over the position in the queue between him and his classmate. The others got involved later,” he said.
The cousin said the four of them followed the boy to the washroom when he took a break between classes. “The doctors and the police told us that he died because he couldn’t breathe. One boy covered the victim’s mouth while three others punched him in the stomach and chest,” he said. Mr. Singla, however, said the police were awaiting the post mortem report to ascertain the cause of death.
The family was initially told, allegedly by the school principal, that the boy had fallen ill in the school and taken to the hospital. However, when the family reached the hospital after the call, they were told by the doctors that he died in the school itself. The police said they were probing the school’s negligence.
