Rahul Giri stepped out of his house for a break when he was attacked with hazardous substances.
His decision to quietly slip out and take a breather after having spent the day preparing for the English exam, scheduled for February 26, proved costly for Rahul Giri, a resident of Shiv Vihar.
A student of Class X enrolled in a CBSE-affiliated private school, Giri suffered serious burn injuries to his face, hands and feet after being attacked with hazardous substances, unspecified so far, during the violence in the area on the night of February 25.
The area was on the boil since morning, but he failed to gauge the intensity of the situation and ventured out in the evening. “Suddenly, something burst in front of my face and I started running through the lanes. I didn’t know what to do and where to go,” Giri said, lying on a bed surrounded by family members.
The boy’s mother Puja Giri said he came running, dashed straight into the washroom and opened the taps. “Aise toh ye nahata hai nahi. One has to constantly be after him to ensure he takes a bath. So I was a little surprised,” she said.
Vinod Giri, his father who works with a jagran, said the boy was so traumatied that he refused to come out of the washroom. “Then we entered and found out what had happened,” he said.
However, the family claimed that fearing attacks on the road, they could not take him to the hospital and got him treated by a local doctor instead. An ointment, used in cases of non-serious burn injuries, was being applied.
While Rahul is a direct victim, students across the area, dotted with private schools, are all suffering due to the violence, which has left three schools located within a one-kilometre radius at various levels of devastation.
The DPR convent school, located near the Shiv Vihar Tiraha, a tri-junction of Shiv Vihar, Mustafabad and Karawal Nagar, Rajdhani Public Sr Secondary School and another private school in Khajuri Khas are among the ones that were ransacked and torched.
The destruction at the DPR convent school appears to be the highest among the three with arsonists not just ransacking its premises, but also setting rooms on fire, which gutted admit cards and other valuables, said Sunil Sharma, who manages the institution.
“I got a call from the peon around 3 pm on February 24. The students had left by 1.30 pm. They came sliding down ropes from the roof of the Rajdhani school. They damaged the CCTVs and then went on a rampage. The next day they returned and torched the classrooms,” Sharma said.
The gates of the Rajdhani school were locked and police stood guard in front of it. Its window panes were broken and the courtyard, as seen through the iron grills, carried signs of intense vandalism as well. On Sunday, the school administration deployed workers to repair the damage and clear the premises off debris.