The 12-year-old girl who allegedly attacked a Class 1 student with a knife in the washroom of Lucknow’s Brightland School has been sent to a juvenile home, reports The Indian Express.
The 12-year-old has denied the allegations, even though the victim had identified her from photographs of students from Class 6 or 7 that were shown to him.
According to The Indian Express, the victim had claimed that he was on his way to the morning assembly when the girl asked him to come with her because a teacher was calling him. She then took him inside the bathroom, slashed his forehead and stomach with a knife and then left, and even closed the door from outside.
After the victim identified the girl as his attacker, she was brought before the Juvenile Justice Board and was sent to a juvenile home. The girl’s parents have claimed that their daughter is being framed by the school authorities, the report adds.
Why did the school cut my daughter’s hair? This is the forensic team’s work. They even stripped my child and asked her to pick up some suspicious things… What does it mean? I believe that the school administration is not paying attention to us and we are being framed.The girl’s father told The Indian Express
SP (Trans-Gomti) Harendra Singh told The Indian Express that the girl had a bit of a troubled history. According to the report, the girl’s parents had lodged two missing complaints with the police last year. Both times the girl was found, but the second time she had reportedly left her house with Rs 1 lakh in cash and some jewellery. She was later found in Shahjahanpur district, the report adds.
The school administration also alleged that the girl had cut her wrists with a shaving razor and had subsequently claimed that she had been attacked, reported The Indian Express.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on 18 January, paid a visit to the victim, who was allegedly attacked with a sharp-edged weapon inside a toilet at a private school in Lucknow’s Triveni Nagar on 17 January.
The police told ANI that the minor accused’s DNA samples have been sent for forensic testing.
The principal of Lucknow’s Brightland School has been taken into police custody.
According to The Indian Express, he was arrested under sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform) of the IPC, since he had not informed the police on time, which counts as leading to destruction of evidence.
Outraged parents staged massive protests outside the school premises on 18 January, demanding answers from the school authorities, ANI reported.
"I was informed by the school that my son is injured. He has been attacked with knife by a girl," said the victim's distraught father, Rajesh, a class four employee in the High Court. The boy has been admitted to the trauma centre. His condition was stated to be out of danger, officials said.
Dr Sandeep Tewari, who was treating the boy, said the victim had deep wounds on chest and stomach that “seem to have been inflicted with a knife-like sharp object.”
An FIR has been registered in connection with the matter. Panic gripped the school when other parents came to know about the incident and charged the school administration with trying to hush up the case.
When contacted, director of the school Veena Vyas, said, "I am taking all the precautions in view of Ryan International school case. We are also looking at whether it is due to the deadly game 'Blue Whale Challenge'."
"We have 70 CCTV cameras installed in the school and we are going through the footage," she said.
Taking note of the incident after the picture of the wounded boy went viral on social media and TV channels, District Inspector of Schools (DIoS) Mukesh Kumar Singh had issued a notice to the school seeking clarification as to why legal action should not be initiated against it.
"The school has not provided information to our office regarding the incident after registration of the FIR. A clarification has been sought from the school," Singh said.
The case is eerily similar to the case where seven-year-old Pradyumn Thakur, studying in class II in Gurgaon's Ryan International School, was found dead with his throat slit by a sharp-edged weapon in the school's washroom in September 2017. A 16-year-old student of the school was charged with the murder.
(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express)
(This is a developing story and will be updated.)
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