+1 student killed outside Panchkula school

Tribune News Service  

Panchkula, September 17

A 15-year-old boy, Vikas Kumar, was stabbed to death over the theft of a mobile phone outside Major Sandeep Sagar Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 7, here this afternoon. The main accused are two students of the school, who are juvenile.  

Eyewitnesses said some of the attackers were in ITI uniform and the incident occurred around 2.30 pm. 

When Vikas was attacked, Suraj, a student of Class X, rushed to defend him, but he was also attacked and suffered an injury on his hand.  

The victim was a student of Class XI of the arts stream in the school. His brother, Akash, was also his classmate, but he had left earlier. 

The school peon was the first to arrive at the scene. Teachers and students rushed both Vikas and Suraj to the General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula. Vikas was declared brought dead. He had suffered an injury in the chest. Suraj was sent home after being administered first aid.

According to the police, Vikas had an altercation with the accused over the theft of a mobile phone, which resulted in the fight today.

ACP Noopur Bishnoi and the SHO of the Sector 5 police station, Inspector Arvind Kumar, reached the spot. 

Principal Sanjay Kumar, who had come to meet the family at the General Hospital, Sector 6, said he was unaware about any old enmity of Vikas with somebody. He said he had gone for a meeting and was not in the school at the time of the incident. 

Similar incident 

On September 26, 2011, three students had stabbed a 26-year-old person to death as he tried to intervene in a scuffle between them and another student. The incident had taken place in the parking of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 19, Chandigarh.  Later, the students were held guilty and were awarded life imprisonment. 

Teams sent to arrest accused, say police 

Panchkula DCP Abhishek Jorwal said they had identified the accused. “There are two main accused in the incident, who are from the same school. It is learnt that on Saturday, there was a scuffle between the victim and the accused over the theft of a mobile phone belonging to the victim’s friend. It is claimed that the victim had allegedly slapped one of them,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhishek Jorwal. 

He said, “Today, the accused brought other boys to the school and Vikas was stabbed.” 

The police have registered a murder case and have sent crime branch teams to arrest the accused. 

“Once, the main accused are arrested, we will arrest the others,” said Jorwal. 

20-25 persons had come from outside: Employee

According to Vinod Kumar, a Class IV employee of the school, there was a group of 20 to 25 people who had come from outside. He said he first forced them to leave the place. However, as the school dispersed, they came again. He said he heard about the scuffle and rushed towards the gate and chased the boys. But by then, they had stabbed Vikas.

Parents blame school

Vikas’ father Banwari Lal works in a factory as a labourer, while his mother Meena is employed as an attendant in British High School, Sector 8, Panchkula. The family lives in Railla village in Sector 12, Panchkula.  Meena said, “The school should have taken care of its students. They need to protect them.” She said, “We will not allow the postmortem and the school to function till the accused are arrested.”

Parents inconsolable

Both Banwari Lal and Meena wanted to see the body of their son. When they were allowed inside, the mother started wailing. The father also broke down.