Class 2 boy ‘sacrificed’ in Hathras, kin seek death penalty for accused

A software firm employee whose 11-year-old son was allegedly strangled by his school principal and teachers in a botched occult ritual in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras demanded the death penalty for the child’s killers on Friday and alleged that more people were involved in the gruesome crime that has shocked the state.
Sri Krishna Kushwaha, a software professional working with a private firm in Noida, shifted his family to his village in Hathras district during the pandemic.
But dreams of a better future for his children were crushed this week, when the owner of the school, the manager, the principal, and two teachers abducted Kritarth from the hostel to perform a tantric ritual for the prosperity of the institution, and eventually killed him.

“We are not satisfied by the working out of the case because we believe that there were others involved too. A special investigation team should be created for proper investigation,” said Kushwaha.
Police have arrested five people, shut the school, and said the hostel was running without permission. They also said that a similar occult attempt was made with a previous student on the night of September 6,but was abandoned when the teenager made a ruckus.
“My only son was so brutally attacked that his collar bone was broken. The school authorities say the CCTV camera was non-functional on the day of the incident and no footage is being provided to us,” Kushwaha said.
“Bulldozer action should be taken against such schools and the school authorities responsible should be publicly hanged,” he added.
The crime was committed on Sunday but came to light on Thursday when the five accused was arrested.
Police said Jasodhan Singh, the owner of DL Public School where Kritarth was enrolled, believed in tantric rituals and asked his son Dinesh Baghel, the director of the school, to sacrifice a child for the “prosperity” of the school and his family.
“On September 22, the student was abducted from the school’s hostel by teacher Ramprakash Solanki, Dinesh Baghel and school owner Jasodhan Singh. Jasodhan Singh believes in ‘tantra’ practice and asked his son to sacrifice a child for the prosperity of school and his family,” said Ashok Kumar Singh, additional superintendent of police (ASP), Hathras.
They took the student to a secluded place for the sacrifice and began shaving his head, but the student woke up and began crying and struggling, the officer said.
Kritarth was thrashed to silence him but when he resisted, and the accused allegedly stuffed a cloth into his mouth, said police. “After that he was strangulated. Another teacher Veerpal Singh and school principal Laxman Singh were also present at the spot and were guarding the place,” Ashok Kumar Singh added.
The next morning, Kushwaha said he received a call from Baghel, saying that his son was running a fever.
“The school is located 6km from my village. I asked him to drop my son home so that I could get him treated. He said the boy’s condition was deteriorating and thus he was being taken to Agra,” Kushwaha said.
The family became suspicious, and intercepted the school van at Sadabad on the Agra-Hathras road. The body was found there.
“We found my son’s body along with his school bag. Why would one carry a schoolbag for an ailing student?” asked Kushwaha.
He said he had no idea about the school management indulging in occult practices and said he also got his daughter admitted to the school this year. She did not stay at the hostel but went to the school in a cab with a few other girls, he said.
Police said a location near a tube well was selected as the site of the ritual and added that a rope, keys and a religious text were found there.
“Police found material commonly associated to occult practices,” said Hathras superintendent of police Nipun Agarwal.
Police said the postmortem report of the student revealed that he was strangled. They have arrested Jasodhan Singh, Baghel, principal Laxman Singh and two teachers Ramprakash Solanki and Veerpal Singh, and lodged an FIR against them under Section 103 (1) (murder) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Police also said they found another student, a teenager, who said Baghel, an occult practitioner, had tried to abduct him in his sleep on September 6 but he raised an alarm, prompting teachers and other students to come to his rescue.
DL Public School was shut on Friday after orders from the education department, which is probing how a school with permission to run classes only till the fifth standard was operating up to Class 8 with a hostel.
The hostel had a strength of 35 students and there were 24 students there on the day of the incident, people familiar with the matter said. The two-storeyed school building had about 20 rooms where about 700 to 800 students studied.
Agarwal said the basic education officer was in process of filing a complaint on the basis of which a case will be registered under relevant sections.
“The school, now closed, was not having the sanction to have residential facilities for students. The school is found violating various terms and conditions of affiliation. Legal action will be taken against the school management after the case is registered,” Agarwal said.
But for the inconsolable father, this meant little. He had put Kritarth in theschool, hoping that he will have a good educational foundation.For both children, he paid annual fees of ₹1 lakh.
“During Covid, my wife and children came back to our native village in Hathras. I had thought that later, I would get my son admitted to a better school in a bigger city,” he said.
In lower kindergarten, Kritarth was a day scholar but from upper kindergarten, he was accommodated in the hostel. “It was better to have my family in the village, and financially easier for us. I would come to visit from Noida on weekends,” he said. “Now it’s all lost.”