PANCHKULA, India — An eight-year-old boy in Class 3 at a government school in Panchkula, Haryana, assaulted a six-year-old kindergarten student inside a classroom on Wednesday, leaving her with facial and nasal fractures and requiring hospitalization, officials and local media reported.
The boy lured the girl into an empty classroom by telling her her father had arrived to pick her up at the school. Once inside, the boy grabbed the girl by her hair and repeatedly banged her head against a desk, before kicking and striking her with a brick, officials said. The assault continued even after the girl fell to the floor and lost consciousness.
Closed-circuit television footage from the classroom, later shared on social media, showed the boy returning after some time and dragging the unconscious girl across the floor, continuing to strike her.
The auto-rickshaw driver who arrived to pick up the girl could not find her and informed her father. The girl was hospitalized in Chandigarh, where she regained consciousness on Saturday.
The boy narrated the incident to a teacher after school administration reviewed the CCTV footage. A first information report has been registered under the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children Act, 2015, and provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police Aditi Singh said.
The Haryana government has formed a five-member committee to investigate the incident and ordered a safety audit of schools in the state. The government also said it would bear the cost of the girl’s treatment.
The case has sparked outrage over school safety and the supervision of young students.
