CLASS 12 BOY SCOLDED IN SCHOOL, ENDS LIFE

GRAVE STEP Reprimanded for riding a bike to school & ramming into a rickshaw, the teen shot himself with his father’s revolver

A Class 12 student of Cathedral School here shot himself dead with his father’s licensed revolver in Madiaon, after the principal scolded him for driving a bike and ramming into a rickshaw on Saturday. His family accused the principal of harassing and humiliating the boy that prompted him to commit suicide and demanded stern action in the case. The boy, Lalit Yadav 18, lived with his mother Shiv Devi and elder brother Sumit Yadav in Faizullaganj. His father Amar Nath Yadav, a head constable promotee with UP Police, is posted in Lakhimpur Kheri, nearly 130 kilometres from here.

A Class 12 student of Cathedral School here shot himself dead with his father’s licensed revolver in Madiaon, after the principal scolded him for driving a bike and ramming into a rickshaw on Saturday. His family accused the principal of humiliating the boy that prompted him to commit suicide .

Lalit Yadav, 18 (in pic) lived with his mother Shiv Devi and elder brother Sumit Yadav in Faizullaganj. His father Amar Nath Yadav, a head constable promotee with UP Police, is posted in Lakhimpur Kheri, nearly 130 km from here.

The school management said the boy rammed into the rickshaw near the Bank of India intersection at around 7.30am. The rickshaw-puller was ferrying a girl who was injured in the mishap. People surrounded the boy after the accident but the principal, Fr Melwyn Saldanha, spotted him in trouble and the school staff came to his rescue.

The principal considered the boy’s act of driving a bike to school as indiscipline and informed his father, asking him to come to school but the latter expressed his inability as he was in Lakhimpur Kheri. The principal then sent the boy home with the school’s physical training instructor (PTI) after morning assembly but seized his bike and mobile phone, telling him to bring his parents on Monday to get his belongings back.

“Lalit’s mother rushed to school when his father told her about the incident from his father but by then the PTI had dropped him home. The boy, who was alone at home for some time, shot himself in the temple with his father’s revolver, ” said Nagesh Kumar Mishra, inspector of Madiaon police station.

He said when the boy’s mother returned home, she found him lying on the floor, bleeding profusely. She rushed him to KGMU’s trauma centre where he succumbed during treatment.

He said the deceased’s family accused the principal of humiliating the boy in front of other students that sent him into depression. He said the family members were holding the principal responsible for the boy’s death but so far they had not registered any complaint against him.

The family said the school authorities should have waited as they had informed the boy’s father. They said the incident would have been averted if the boy was sent home with his mother, who was already on her way to school. They also said the school principal’s hurried move resulted into the tragic incident.

The school management refuted all allegations and said school staff rescued Lalit when he was surrounded by a group of people after the accident. The principal asked the PTI to drop Lalit home and inform his parents to come to school on Monday when nobody turned up after being informed about the incident, they said.