Manish wanted to go early for friend's birthday

BENGALURU: What was to be a fun-filled and joyous occasion for their son turned tragic for Sanjay Singh and his wife, the parents of Manish Sanjay Singh, who died along with his friend Saahil after they consumed liquid cyanide. Manish, a Class 3 student at Kamaladevi School in Chickpet, where Saahil Shankar also studied, had insisted on going to his friend’s birthday party. His mother dropped him off at Saahil’s house and returned home as it was children’s party. What unfolded next was an unexpected tragedy.

“He insisted that he wanted to go to the party and that his mother should drop him off much earlier,” said Kumar, Sanjay’s friend, who was seen consoling him. When asked how the boys reached out to the bottle with harmful content, Sanjay said that Shankar basically works on cleaning gold ornaments and the room is usually locked.

“There was nobody there and Shankar had gone out,” he said. Several neighbours and friends gathered at the Victoria Hospital mortuary and expressed shock over the incident.“We are all businessmen and come home late. We were in for a shock when we came to know about the incident. It is hard to believe that kids who were growing up before our own eyes are no more,” said Jaikumar, a family friend.