In an incident that sent shockwaves across the district, an eight-year-old boy was stabbed to death by his neighbour while he was going to school along with his elder sister and friend at Kannoth, near Periye, here on Thursday.
A Class III student of Government Higher Secondary School at Kallyott, Fahad died on the spot after he was stabbed on his head and neck by Vijayan, 30, a coconut plucker, said to be mentally deranged, police sources said.
When Vijayan threatened them with knife, Fahad’s sister, Sauda, and friend fled in panic, leaving the physically challenged boy behind. He is said to be an endosulfan victim.
The students alerted the people nearby who caught the man and handed him over to the police.
Vijayan used to enter into frequent altercation with the boy’s father, Abbas, an autorickshaw driver, over trivial issues. The police were investigating if the man committed the crime on personal grudge with the boy’s family.
The boy’s body was taken to the District Hospital at Kanhangad and later shifted to the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital for post-mortem.
The police have registered a murder case.
Senior officials led by A. Srinivas, Superintendent of Police, visited the spot, where a large number of people gathered after learning about the gruesome incident.
A senior police official said Vijayan, said to be a BJP loyalist, had earlier been booked for making a bomb hoax call to a railway station here.
