Shock and anger in India after eight-year-old beats six-year-old in classroom

There has been shock and anger in India over video footage from the CCTV of a school that shows an eight-year-old boy brutally beating a six-year-old girl. The girl, who was seriously injured, is recovering in hospital and is now out of danger but remains traumatised by the assault in Haryana state, her family has said. Police say they have registered a case and the eight-year-old has been sent to a home for juvenile offenders where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation.

Police say the school principal and two other teachers have been suspended for suspected negligence. The incident that took place in a government school in Panchkula in the northern state of Haryana on 28 October came to light at the weekend after the CCTV footage went viral on social media. The boy’s motive is unknown. The horrific assault has sent shock waves through the country.

Many people expressed anguish over the little girl’s injuries – and the brutality displayed by the boy. Panchkula police official Aditi Singh said the girl is recuperating in hospital while the boy has been sent to a home for juvenile offenders Police say the eight-year-old, who is studying in third grade, told the girl that her father was waiting for her in a classroom where he assaulted her.

The girl’s family reached the school after an auto-rickshaw driver told them he had gone to pick her up but couldn’t find her. “When the girl was not found even after school ended, we went in to look for her. No one there knew where she was,” her father told BBC Punjabi. He said the boy who assaulted his daughter told him that she was in a classroom upstairs, where he found his seriously injured daughter.

“When I saw her, I almost screamed. Looking at her condition, I thought they’d killed my daughter. If a child isn’t safe in school, then where will she be safe?” The girl was initially taken to a local hospital but later moved to the multi-speciality PGIMER hospital in nearby Chandigarh. A statement from PGIMER said the six-year-old girl was “brought to the hospital with critical injuries”.

A multidisciplinary team of specialists is closely monitoring her condition and providing all necessary medical attention, the hospital said. “The circumstances involving this little child are deeply concerning. We want to ensure that she receives the best possible medical care, along with all the support and comfort she needs,” the statement quoted hospital director Vivek Lal as saying.

The hospital later shared a photo of Dr Lal with the girl sitting in her father’s lap and smiling. In a video statement on Saturday, senior police official Aditi Singh said they had registered an FIR (first information report) against the school management for “negligence” and were investigating what happened. “The boy is being evaluated by mental experts under the Juvenile Justice Act and further action will be taken accordingly,” she added.

Under Indian law, an eight-year-old cannot be punished or sent to jail so the child has been sent to an observation home run by the Juvenile Justice Board, another senior police official Amarinder Singh said. The emphasis in cases involving minors is on reformation and counselling, he added. Meanwhile, the Haryana state government has formed a committee to investigate what happened and whether there was any negligence in the case.