Sordid tale of a farmer whose son was stabbed to death
LUCKNOW: The Lucknow incident may have triggered a debate on the security of children on campuses. But for Hiralal Yadav, a native of Sarai Bhadi gram in Azamgarh, it is a chilling reminder of a horrific incident wherein his six-year-old son, Krishna, was stabbed to death on the school premises in 2016.
“The only difference is that my Krishna is no more and in Lucknow the victim is hospitalised,” said Hiralal Yadav, 38, a farmer.
Yadav was once a happy man whose dream was to see his son becoming an IAS officer. And perhaps for the same reason, he withdrew his son from a local primary school and got him enrolled in Ram Kunvar Singh College in Singhpur Bazaar, Azamgarh.
“I met the school manager and requested him to enroll my son. He showed me the CCTV cameras, big screens and freshly painted classrooms and big playground. And I got impressed,” he added.
Seeing his son Krishna speaking English was no less than a pleasure for Yadav who was a happy man until January 27, 2016 – the fateful day when the news of his son’s murder came in.
“On that day, my son went to school as usual, but never came back. I still remember the day. I was watering the field when a person came shouting, saying my son met with an accident,” he added.
He rushed to the school, from where he was asked to go to the post- mortem house. “I reached the post-mortem house, where I found my son’s body wrapped and sealed in a white cloth. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Yadav.
“But that was the truth. My Krishna, who was a student of LKG, was stabbed to death with a knife and was dumped in the backyard of the school, barely 50 metres behind the main premises of the school,” he said.
Hiralal Yadav said the evidences and circumstances suggested that a 14-year-old boy, a student of Class 4 of the same school, took along my son and stabbed him to death.
The deceased’s father staged demonstrations, squatted before the school and even went on a hunger strike, but failed to bring justice to his deceased son. Yadav also ran from pillar to post and made several attempts to meet the district magistrate and other top officials to seek “unbiased probe into the matter.” He alleged that the police had a lethargic approach towards the case as the father of the suspect was a pradhan and an influential person.
That was not all. Yadav also chased the fleet of former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, demanding an ‘unbiased probe’ into his son’s case.
“I came to know that Akhilesh bhaiyya is coming to Jaunpur for a function. I reached there and came to know that he is coming to Badlapur for a function. I also managed to reach Badlapur to meet him but the security personnel stopped me. Then I chased his fleet, just to convey him my plea, but I was detained for eight hours,” he lamented.
Hiralal Yadav said his son’s case was in court, but he didn’t have enough money to pursue it. “On my son’s second death anniversary (January 27), I will organise a ‘hawan’ for the peace of the departed soul,” added Yadav.