Class 8 boy cooks up kidnapping bid story to hide deep cuts inflicted for bravado

A 12-year-old Class 8 student of school in Lutyens’ Delhi kept the police on their toes for almost eight hours on Friday after he alleged that an unidentified man tried to kidnap him from the school campus.

The policemen heaved a sigh of relief only when it was established that the schoolboy had cooked up his kidnapping story only to avoid getting scolded from his teachers and parents for inflicting multiple cuts on his body.

Inspired by a crime show on TV, the boy got into a competition with four other classmates over who could inflict maximum number of deep cuts on their bodies using the blades of pencil sharpener.

The schoolboy claimed that he was playing in the school ground when someone overpowered him and tried to drag him out of the school premises using the unmanned back gate. He threw dust in his kidnapper’s eyes and set himself free. Before the kidnapper could catch him again, the boy ran out of the school and fled towards Mandi House where a Doordarshan employee stopped him and asked why he was running on the road in school uniform.

The Doordarshan employee was shocked when the schoolboy narrated the entire kidnapping attempt in the school premises. Not only he consoled the schoolboy but also helped him speak to his father over phone. The boy’s father, a businessman dealing in embroidery, immediately reached the place and called the police control room to inform the police about his son’s kidnapping bid.

A police team from the Tilak Marg immediately reached outside Doordarshan office where they found the schoolboy along with his father, school staff, and some Doordarshan employees. One of the policemen found cut wounds on the boy’s hand and immediately rushed him to the nearby hospital for medical attention.

“After the medical attention, the boy was brought to the police station where the SHO asked him what actually happened to him. The SHO found discrepancies in the schoolboy’s statement and asked him to tell the actual story. However, the schoolboy stuck to his kidnapping theory for almost seven hours and broke down only when he was confronted with the statement of his classmates and school teachers,” said a police officer.

The schoolboy admitted that he had made up the kidnapping story after he became afraid that the school authorities would inform his parents about his inflicting wounds on his body just to prove his bravery in front of his classmates.

“The boy inflicted deep cut on his hand and was bleeding when his classmates took him to the medical room. When the teacher at the first-aid room told him that she will complain to the school principal and parents, he ran out of the school. Some school staff and teachers had attempted to stop him from fleeing the school premises,” the officer said.

No case was registered in connection with the matter. The boy was allowed to go home with his family members.