A pall of gloom descended on Kumars’ family and the neighbourhood following the death of five-year-old Yash Raj Kumar.
In fact, the family members were busy preparing for not just one, but two marriages when the rude shock came.
Yash Raj’s uncle Suraj was to get married on February 14 and a cousin sister the following day.
“Yash was so excited and looking forward to the weddings. His parents were planning to buy new clothes for him and his sister,” said Lakhan Kumar, the boy’s uncle.
Anil Kumar, Yash’s father, was the second of the three brothers, and all of them stayed in a rented duplex house in Dhoolpet.
Only male child“Yash was the only male child in the family, and everyone was so fond of him. His cousin sisters often dropped him at school and brought gifts for him,” Anil Kumar said.
The grief-stricken parents, Anil and Deepika, were inconsolable after seeing their son’s body.
At the morgue, the scene was no different. “I do not own any property, nor do I have enemies. Why then was my child killed so brutally?” asked a distraught Anil.
People were unable to come to terms with the boy’s death. “Whoever responsible for the killing should be hanged in public,” Kiran Singh, a local resident of Dhoolpet, said.
The previous night, more than 50 persons had searched for Yash in the surrounding areas in vain.
“We distributed copies of his pictures and went around till the wee hours of the day,” says Suraj.
Following the incident, the school that Yash attended declared a holiday.
