“Prince ke chhote bhai-behen ab school jaane se darte hai. Woh kehte hai ki bhaiya ko jaise maar diya, kahi woh hume na maar de” (Prince’s younger siblings fear going to school now. They are worried that they will be killed like their brother).”
This is what 38-year-old Devdutt told The Quint five days after his 12-year-old son, Prince, died after being brutally beaten up, allegedly by a teacher in his school in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida.
The incident took place in Bambawar village on 7 October and Prince’s parents went to four hospitals across Delhi and Greater Noida before he got admitted at the Lok Nayak hospital in the capital. It took the family eight hours to find a hospital bed for their son. He died the next morning.
An FIR has been filed against the accused teacher, identified as Shobaran, under sections pertaining to culpable homicide.
Grief, fear, anger, and heartbreak enveloped Bambawar village. The school – Captain Sanwariya Public School – was shut, and the principal and staffers were nowhere to be seen on 12 October when The Quint visited.
“We had admitted him to this private school just months ago… Then this happened. Now we have pulled out our other two children from the school,” said Devdutt, as he broke down.
What Happened on 7 October?
The deceased’s mother Meenakshi told The Quint, that along with his younger siblings, Anushka (9), and Mukul (11), Prince too, left for school at 7.05 am that day, after taking a bath like they usually did.
“I do not remember what I spoke to him about last. Nobody imagines that their child will go to school and not return,” she said while fighting back tears. Both Devdutt and Meenakshi are daily wagers.
Around 12.50 pm, Devdutt got a call from Prince's school. “The teacher, who beat up my son, called to say that Prince was unwell. At that time, I didn’t know that Prince had been beaten up by this teacher.”
Devdutt rushed to his son's school, where he found Prince unconscious. “He was covered in vomit, and had injury marks all over his body. I cleaned his face with my handkerchief,” he claimed.
That’s when the family’s struggle of looking for a hospital began. Prince’s father alleged that the local hospital said they were not equipped to handle this case and didn’t admit him.
Prince’s uncle, Prem Singh Chauhan told The Quint, "He was taken to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital where they were told that no beds are available. We heard the same thing at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and GB Pant hospital."
Prince was beaten up around noon but he only got admitted at a hospital – Delhi’s Lok Nayak – after 9 pm. “The doctors at the hospital told us that my son had suffered a brain haemorrhage. He died the next morning,” said Chauhan.
DCP (Central Noida) Rambadan Singh said that Prince’s mother, Meenakshi informed the police only on 9 October.
“She told the police that her son, who studied in Captain Sanwariya Public School in Bambawar, was in class five and on 7 October, his teacher, Shobaran thrashed him. He was subsequently taken to Dadri for treatment, and then taken to Lok Nayak hospital," he said.
Accused Teacher Accompanied Family to Hospital, Then Ran
For hours, Devdutt and Chauhan were left wondering as to how Prince had such deep injuries on his body.
Chauhan alleged,
At Lok Nayak hospital, we asked the teacher if anyone hit Prince. He kept refusing and then finally when the doctors insisted that that it was impossible that no one had beaten him up… He confessed.Prem Singh Chauhan, Prince's uncle
Chauhan alleged that at first the teacher claimed to have “hit Prince twice with a stick,” but when the doctor said the blows were too grave, “the teacher finally admitted to thrashing our child at least 11 times with a stick.”
“Our child loved going to school… The teacher beat him up over what? Not finishing his homework?” said an aghast Chauhan.
‘Beating Kids is a Norm in Prince's School’
Among those mourning Prince at his home was 22-year-old Nicky Kumar, who lives nearby.
Kumar was a former student of the same school and alleged that he quit school in 2016 because the teachers and the headmaster would beat him up.
“I was in my teens then and the headmaster beat me up. I had gone out of the classroom to drink water and when I was walking back, the headmaster beat me up with a stick as they were strict about loitering around. I left school that day itself,” he told The Quint.
Kumar works at a salon now. He never completed his education after he left Captain Sanwariya Public School. “I wish I had finished my studies,” said Kumar.
The Quint visited the school, which is a 10-minute walk from Prince’s house, but the gates were locked from inside and nobody was seen in and around the premises. Residents said that the school has been shut since the incident.
Prince’s father Devdutt said, “Everyone knows teachers hit students but to this extent? We assumed that he would have got a scolding if he wasn’t studying properly… But we never thought this would happen.”
Kumar, however, claimed that the school is “infamous for how they treat the students and yet parents send their children to the school if they are naughty, thinking that they will improve here.”
It was exactly this reason that prompted Devdutt and Meenakshi to shift Prince from a government school to this private school.
Meenakshi told The Quint, “We thought he would improve in studies and become better if we put him in this school. If we had known that they would beat him up, we would have not shifted him to the new school.”
The family was paying Rs 250 a month as tuition fee at school.
‘Prince Looked Forward to Diwali, Wanted to Decorate the House’
Prince lived with his grandparents, his parents, and his two siblings in modest two-room house in Bambawar village.
Five days after his death, his siblings Mukul and Anushka stood in a corner, as a slew of relatives and neighbours took over the house.
“My three children slept on the same bed. They are so used to having him around and now they are unable to understand what happened,” said Meenakshi.
This Diwali, Prince was supposed to decorate the house. “He was so excited, he loved the light,” said Meenakshi. Now, the house is shrouded in grief.
Meanwhile, Prince’s grandmother, Veerwati, told The Quint that he was a welcoming young boy, who liked it when guests came over. “If he was alive today, he would have made you tea. He used to make Maggi for his sister… It was his favourite,” she said, as tears rolled down her eyes.
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