Students skip school a day after boy’s murder in Muzaffarpur district

MUZAFFARPUR: The government middle school at Bada Jaganath village under the Ahiapur police station area in Muzaffarpur district wore a deserted look on Friday a day after a 14-year-old student was stabbed to death inside a classroom in front of other students.
The student, Suraj Kumar, was stabbed with a dagger by one Munna Rai with whom he had an altercation on Wednesday evening after the latter tried to snatch his (Suraj’s) mother’s purse.Munna was arrested by the police on Thursday.
Locals said the incident created panic among the students and their parents, who preferred not to send their wards to the school on Friday.
School principal Sanjay Kumar, however, said all nine teachers of the school, including three women teachers, were present on Friday.
“What can we do if the students have not turned up? We are present even though the locals thrashed us despite the fact that we took the victim to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital for treatment after the attack,” the principal said.
He added the locals were unnecessarily blaming the school management for the murder. “The incident occurred before we could understand anything. We tried to catch the assailant, but he fled brandishing gun,” the principal said.
Umashankar Rai, a resident of the village and guardian of a Class VI student, said he will not send the child to the school until the administration makes proper security arrangement there.
Muzaffarpur SSP Manoj Kumar said action would be taken against the hooligans, who disrupted the vehicular traffic on NH 57 and set furniture and documents of the school on fire to protest the murder.
“We are trying to identify the troublemakers through video footages collected from various sources. They will be arrested soon,” the SSP said, adding security will be provided to the students and teachers of the school.
Meanwhile, Musahari circle officer handed over Rs 13,000 to Suraj’s family under Kabir Antyaeshti Yojna to perform his late rites. He said the family will get a compensation of Rs 7 lakh under different schemes.