The 16-year-old student, who was mercilessly beaten by two brothers from the same Kendriya Vidyalaya in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, has said that he was targeted because he was a Dalit. His plight came to notice after a video in which he was seen being beaten up went viral on social media. The two brothers were later arrested.
The student, son of a teacher in a village in Bihar, was sent to Muzaffarpur to study as he was good at academics. He lived there with his maternal grandparents as the city provided better schools. However, what was to be a source of betterment in life turned into humiliation and torture for the teenager.
Even though he scored well in academics and his parents were happy for him, he was regularly targeted by the two brothers, sons of a local criminal, in the area. One of the boys was the victim's classmate, while the other was a junior.
The victim had gone to a teacher when he could not take the torture anymore, but did not find solace as the teacher, though sympathetic, said that the school would not be able to do anything against the two perpetrators as they came from a powerful family, the victim wrote in a blog post on NDTV.
Worried that his family would be targeted, he kept mum. However, his maternal grandfather filed a complaint against the two brothers when he found out about the video.
The two brothers can be seen punching him repeatedly, while other classmates look on. Nobody steps forward to stop them.
The victim was targeted even more when one of the brothers found out he was from the Scheduled Caste. The son of the local criminal apparently could not score well despite cheating, while the victim got good marks, which incensed the attacker.
The victim has said that since the issue came to light, his family has received a few threats and he was stopped going to school even though his exams are scheduled in March next year.
