Two of the three Anantapur students who drank Maaza laced with a fungicide in the back yard of their school on Wednesday died on Thursday while the other is fighting for his life at St John’s Hospital in Bangalore. Wailing parents and stunned teachers said the children were afraid of not being able to live up to academic expectations.
This tragic sequence of events started when 14-year-old Rajasekhar Reddy (14), a class 10 student of the Government High School in Pappuru Vengannapalli village in Yadiki mandal, stopped going to school on June 20, apparently unable to keep up in class.
He was close friends with Chandra Manohar Reddy and Nageshwar Reddy, both of whom were similarly branded ‘non-intelligent’ by teachers and parents alike.
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Neighbours said Rajasekhar's father used to be severe with the boy as he was not doing well in studies, and speculated that the teenager might have been frightened that his absence from school would be punished.
Vijaya Ranga Reddy, father of the lone surviving boy Chandra Manohar Reddy, told The Hindu that Rajasekhar might have influenced the other two children to consume poison along with him.
On Wednesday, Rajasekhar went to school and met up with his two friends during lunch break. They went behind the school, mixed a fungicide into a soft drink and consumed it.
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Chandra Manohar could not consume all of what was given to him and threw away half of it.
“He became frightened and ran back to our house,” said the boy’s father, Vijaya Ranga Reddy. “He started vomiting and my brother immediately took him to hospital in Yadiki. The doctors there advised us to go to Anantapur.” Rajasekhar and Nageshwar were discovered unconscious and were taken to the same hospital in Yadiki, and thence to a government hospital in Anantapur town. As the parents were not confident of the treatment at the Anantapur hospital, the boys were moved to Bangalore. Also, the specific antidote to the fungicide was not available in the market.
“The parents decided to move the children to Bangalore much against our advice that the first 48 hours would be crucial, said Dr K.S.S. Venkateswara Rao, superintendent of the Anantapur Government General Hospital.
However, Rajashekar and Nageshwar died in the hospital in Bangalore on Thursday while Chandra Manohar continued to fight for his life.
Doctors said he would have to be observed for at least 72 hours before he could be declared out of danger. But the boy is conscious and said he was feeling enough, said his father Vijaya Ranga Reddy.