Mumbai:
"I had a small fight with my classmate. But he went and called his friends and they started hitting me. When I sat on my seat, he came running towards me and attacked me on my thigh with a pair of scissors."
This is the account of a Std III student of Gyan Kendra school in Andheri. And the attacker was not some monstrous bully. It was another Std III student of the same school.
The spat between the two students on Monday afternoon could have turned fatal if the scissors had pierced his stomach.
"After attacking me, he tried to pull out the scissors. I screamed in pain and called out for my teacher. But they ran away before the teacher came", the injured child, who could barely talk because of the excruciating pain, recounted the horror to his family.
School authorities said they had rushed the child to the Kokilaben Hospital where he was operated on for about an hour. Doctors said the blades had pierced about 2.5 inches deep and it took quite some time for them to take it out.
While the school said it was prompt in getting medical aid for the child, the boy's family complained that the institution was "absolutely uncooperative" when the doctors demanded a deposit of Rs 40,000 to start the treatment.
"The principal told us the school could pay only Rs 1,000, and the remaining expenses would have to be borne by us. When we told the school authorities they were responsible for the incident because it had taken place on the school premises, they said it had happened during the recess so they were not responsible," said Suman, the child's mother.
The statement of the child was recorded on Monday night.
"The child was in a lot of pain and had difficulty in talking. But the details we could gather from him and his mother revealed that it was a trivial fight while four of them were playing during the break. The ball hit his classmate by mistake, which angered him and all of a sudden, he took out a pair of scissors from his drawing kit and attacked," said inspector Yogesh Ghorpade of the Versova police station.
DCP KMM Prasanna said they may not go for any arrests. According to doctors, the boy has not suffered any major vascular injury, the senior officer added.
The family of the victim also said they were not sure whether they wanted to go ahead with the case against a small child who did not realise the consequences of his impulsive behaviour.
"He's the same age as our son and would be as loved by his parents. We are really not able to decide what would be the right thing to do," Suman said.
The school authorities remained unavailable for comment till the time of going to the press.
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