School buries body of 12-year-old boy to hide brutal murder by senior students
The education fraternity in Dehradun in Uttarakhand, India is in a state of shock after the brutal murder of Vasu Yadav, a 12-year-old boarding school student, who was beaten to death by seniors with cricket bats and wickets. Police say that in a bid to hush up the matter the management of the 400-strong school hurriedly buried the boy's body inside the premises after doctors declared him dead.
This disturbing incident comes just a few months after a minor girl was gang-raped in another boarding school in the area.
According to the Times of India, on March 10, the boy was beaten brutally in a classroom by two of his seniors, both students of class XII in the same school. The two 19-years-olds allegedly tortured him before pouring cold water over him as they blamed him for stealing a pack of biscuits during an outing. The beating was so harsh that the boy passed away during the ordeal and was left in the classroom for the next few hours. His body was found by the hostel warden only late in the evening.
Speaking to the newspaper, senior superintendent of police Dehradun Nivedita Kukreti said there were several lapses on the school management's part. “Not only was the boy taken very late to the hospital which led to his death, the staff members also tried to hide the incident and did not report it to police. He was beaten up in phases in the afternoon, while he was taken to the hospital late in the evening,” the officer said.
Usha Negi, the chairperson of the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said the school had tried all possible angles to cover up the murder. It was Negi's intervention in the case that finally led to the incident coming to light.
"The incident took place on March 10 and we were informed about it on March 11 following which we visited the school," she said. "However, when we got there, we found that the school administration had buried the body within the campus without even conducting the post-mortem. It was only after our intervention that the police exhumed the body and conducted the postmortem.” She added that “They didn't even bother to inform the parents, who live in Hapur, that their child had died."
A senior police official, speaking to NDTV, said: "The school administration tried to hush up the case, they tried to make it a food poisoning case. After the post-mortem, things became clear that he was beaten up. We have arrested two boys, warden and managers. The real motive of the murder is still not known."
After the interrogation, the bat and the ashes of the burnt wicket, which were used to beat the boy were found, the police said. The accused hid the bat in a sports teacher's cupboard and burnt the wicket. While a case has been registered against the hostel manager, warden, and sports teacher for causing the disappearance of evidence, the two boys involved in the crime have been booked for murder.