Three students of a school in Ahmedabad were booked on Thursday for allegedly assaulting a 12-year-old boy, who is a class monitor, for “enforcing queue discipline”.
The three juveniles in conflict with law allegedly used a blade to cut off the boy’s uniform buttons. The use of blade was mentioned in the police complaint but not in the complaint with the Education Department.
In the latest case, an FIR was filed at the jurisdictional police station on February 5 based on a complaint by the father of the 12-year-old boy. The FIR stated that he received a call from his elder son, who is in college, saying that his younger son was assaulted by some other students of the same school. The complainant advised his elder son to file a written complaint with the school and then all three reached the police station. When the complainant asked his son what had transpired, the boy said that since he was a class monitor, he had been in charge of enforcing queue discipline after school hours while the students were lining up to be picked up by parents, the system put in place after last year’s murder case at the school.
Around 12:30 pm on Wednesday (February 4), three boys, who allegedly refused to walk in the single line, were pulled out of the queue by the complainant’s son, and made to stand by the side. The three accused juveniles allegedly threatened the class monitor following which, he allowed them to rejoin the queue, the FIR stated. Later, in the bicycle parking of the school, where the three juveniles were waiting, allegedly told him “Kal tereko dekh lenge (we will see you tomorrow)”. The next day, on February 5, when the complainant’s son went to the school washroom about 11 am, two of the three students allegedly approached him, one caught hold of him while the other tore off the buttons on his uniform with a blade, thrashed him, and allegedly threatened to kill him if he pulled them out of the queue again, the FIR said.
The three juveniles were booked under relevant sections of the BNS for voluntarily causing hurt and aggravated criminal intimidation.
“The FIR has been filed in the matter and the parents of the three juveniles have been served notices to appear before the Juvenile Justice Board,” a police inspector told The Indian Express.
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Ahmedabad (City) District Education Officer Rohit Chaudhary has issued a show-cause notice to the new administration of the private school and launched an inquiry even as the investigation into the previous fatal incident and school records remains underway.
The school principal at the time of the 2025 murder had been removed by the private school and another principal appointed in his place.
Speaking to The Indian Express, DEO Chaudhary said, “This school has shown negligence once again. The management had removed the old principal and appointed a new one. And now, there has been a fight between students where a boy was injured on the nose and a blade was used to cut out his shirt buttons. But even 24 hours after the incident, this new principal has not apprised the administrator (DEO) and when we tried to contact him today, he was not available in the school. So we issued a show cause notice in the matter. We have also asked the Education Inspector to prepare a detailed incident report with CCTV footage and other proof.”
The detailed report of the latest incident will be submitted by the Education Inspectors to the department in a couple of days.
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Chaudhary, however, added that a “compromise” has been reached between the students on the issue. “The children have reached a compromise, hugged and all are sitting in class together and studying. The FIR was filed because the principal did not give a proper response to the parents.”
Use of blade, a point in contention
The DEO’s office had taken over the administration of the school in light of the murder in 2025. Subsequently, a team of education inspectors had been set up to raise the security and surveillance measures at the school, leading to all students being checked at the gate during entry.
When asked how, despite these measures, a blade was used to intimidate the 12-year-old child, DEO Chaudhary told The Indian Express, “The issue of whether there was a blade or not, we have to check. The blade is mentioned in the FIR but there is no such mention in the statement given to us.”
When asked, the Investigation Officer (IO) from the police station said, “The use of the blade is mentioned in the complaint but we are yet to verify it. We have seized the boy’s uniform shirt and it will be sent to the FSL to check whether a blade was used to tear off the buttons.”
Status of previous inquiry
Asked about the previous inquiry against the school initiated in light of the murder last year, DEO Chaudhary said, “After the new principal came in, we asked for documents including financial records from the school on January 7. However, they have not submitted them to us. We want to see their income and expenses. We have also given them a notice for accepting school fees in cash, which is in violation of the orders of the Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC). They are also taking sports fees which is also a violation of the FRC. The inquiry is underway.”
Murder of student in August 2025
Around 12:30 pm on August 19, 2025, when a 15-year-old student came out of the gate of the school, the accused juvenile in conflict with law, also a student of the same school, approached him and allegedly stabbed him in the left side of the stomach with a foldable box cutter. The victim was taken to LG Hospital and shifted to a private hospital in Maninagar where he died at 3 am on August 20. The juvenile accused was detained on August 19 and has remained at a care home under the supervision of the Juvenile Justice Board.
The FIR had been transferred from the jurisdictional police station to the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) of Ahmedabad City Police. The chargesheet in the case was filed in mid-September 2025, and the trial is underway with hearings every fortnight, said an investigator from the Crime Branch.
