Naresh Gupta was at his paan shop in New Delhi’s Girish Nagar area on Friday evening, around the time his son Ishu, a Class 9 student, would return from school after extra classes. However, around 6 pm, Naresh received a call informing him that his 14-year-old son had been stabbed during a school scuffle. An hour later, Ishu died at GTB Hospital.
Two people were arrested and five minors including a classmate of Ishu’s were apprehended in connection with the incident, police said on Saturday.
“My son never went out much. He played only for an hour every day. Otherwise, he was either in school or at his tuition class. Sometimes, he would come and sit at the shop to help me out,” said Naresh.
Ishu’s government-run school conducted regular extra classes for students in Classes 9 to 12 to complete their syllabus for the upcoming exams, according to the police. “During the break, around 4 pm, a classmate of Ishu borrowed a phone from another student to make a call. He said he had a dispute with Ishu and asked the other person to send people,” DCP (East) Abhishek Dhania said.
The dispute, according to a police officer, stemmed from a ball touching Ishu’s classmate. “During the break, a ball Ishu was playing with touched his classmate, leading to a fight,” the officer said.
The person whom Ishu’s classmate called was his maternal uncle, Saarthi, 19, a resident of the Mandawali area who is pursuing a BA course, the police added.
When the school bell rang around 6 pm, Ishu found six or seven people waiting for him at the gate, including his classmate, Saarthi and his relative Aman Kumar, 31, a dairy shop owner.
“Ishu’s classmate instigated one of his minor friends, who then took out a knife and stabbed Ishu in the right thigh. All of them then fled the scene,” DCP Dhania said.
Ishu was taken to Hedgewar Hospital by his teachers, who also informed his father about the incident. The boy was later transferred to GTB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. “Upon receiving a PCR call, the police arrived at the scene, and the crime team inspected the area. The boy’s body was preserved at the mortuary for a postmortem,” DCP Dhania said.
Around 4 pm on Saturday, 24 hours after the argument that led to Ishu’s death, Naresh cremated his son’s body. “I have one son left. But it could have been someone who has only one son. I know the killer is a kid and that action won’t be the same as for an adult, but there should be some way to get justice for my child,” he said.
Naresh’s elder son is a college student.
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