As the five schoolboys accused of stabbing a 17-year-old were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Saturday, their families lashed out at their teachers, saying it was their fault that the children bunked school and showed no interest in studies. The parents, mostly labourers and factory workers, said their children never spoke to them about the incident. Of the five, three boys study at a government school in Badarpur, while the others study at a school in Sarita Vihar. All of them attend evening school, between 1 pm and 6 pm. On Saturday, a day after the murder, none of them attended school. The mother of a 13-year-old accused said her husband died a few years ago, and she cannot keep a constant eye on her children because she works at a thread making factory. “We send our children to school to study. But what can we do if there are no classes due to absence of teachers? My child often told me that he doesn’t go to school because the teacher never turns up,” said the woman, who has three children, all of whom stay at a relative’s home. The mother of a 15-year-old accused claimed the school never called the parents for a meeting. “I wanted to know how my child is performing in school, but there was no communication. They even suspend the boys without informing parents,” alleged the mother, who works as a domestic help and has three sons. The brother of a 12-year-old accused said, “I kept a tab on his activities and also insisted that he study. But nobody knows what he does at school.” This boy’s father works at a thread making factory while the brother is pursuing graduation from an open university. The parents of the other two boys, both aged 16, were unavailable for comment. One of them drives a taxi, while the other is a factory worker. The relative of one of the boys said he didn’t speak about the incident to anyone at home.
