In an incident having chilling similarities to Gurugram's Ryan International School murder case, a class-9 student of a school in the eastern part of Vadodara in Gujarat was allegedly murdered by a senior, with the help of an accomplice, on Friday.
Around noon on Friday, Dev Kishan Tadvi was found lying in a pool of blood by students who went to use the washroom at the Shri Bharti School.
Closed circuit television cameras hold the key to the murder and the police have begun investigations based on video footage.
According to Vadodara Police Commissioner Manoj Sashidhar, the CCTV footage shows the suspect entering the washroom with the victim.
Even as the suspect was probably “completing the task inside”, another boy, who had accompanied him, kept a close watch outside the washroom.
The police, however, are not sure about the motive behind the gruesome murder.
It was only the third day of the victim in the school. The son of farm labourers from Bakrol village of Anand district of Central Gujarat, Tadvi stayed at his maternal uncle's residence in the Gajrawadi area of Vadodara since childhood.
He did his schooling up to class-8 in the city's Kavi Premanand Primary School and thereafter got admission in Shri Bharti School.
The victim was stabbed multiple times and his throat was slit. The victim died of excessive blood loss.
Based on evidence, which includes recovery of a bag with sharp weapons, sickle and chilli powder, police suspect that the murder was pre-planned.
Police also suspect that the victim had a fight with the suspected killer, who has now gone missing. The bag with weapons was found lying on the terrace of an adjacent building.
A forensic science team reached the spot.