A fourth minor who is a suspect in the murder of a Class 9 student of a Delhi school has been held by the police.
Earlier this week, a minor was allegedly thrashed to death by his classmates inside a private school's washroom in northeast Delhi's Karawal Nagar. The police subsequently arrested three students — all aged 15 — after scanning CCTV footage from the school's premises.
Referring to the assault of the Class 9 student, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) AK Singla had said it had emerged during the questioning of those boys that the victim "was punched by three of his classmates in the toilet."
He added: "On Thursday morning, there was an argument between the boy and the three accused and later when he went to the toilet, they followed him there and thrashed him."
From the investigation so far, the police have predicted that the reason for the assault could be this heated argument between them.
The probing officials had pointed out that there were no injury marks on the Class 9 student's body. But what came as a shocker to the police is that, according to the statement made by the three detained minors, the boy was punched in the face and on the neck multiple times.
"Based on the admissions of the apprehended boys as well as the CCTV footage, we have dropped the provision of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and added Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code," DCP Singla had said.
What was even more shocking was that the school staff had initially claimed that the Class 9 student was suffering from diarrhoea, which had led to his death.
A teacher had said: "There was no scuffle. The boy was not keeping well. He fell unconscious and was taken to the hospital as soon as the school came to know of it."
The parents of the minor had denied to the statements made by the school and the mother had said: "If he was unwell, why would I send him to school?"
In past few months, there have been series incidents where minors have been subjected to violence and lost their lives.
One of the most recent of such incidents was the death of seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur in a school in Gurugram. More recently, a Class VII girl in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh had allegedly stabbed a junior boy several times with a knife in the school washroom.
