E-Paper
Dispute on sleeping arrangements: 18-yr-old senior held in gurukul student murder case
The victim, Anurag Yadav, a Class 6 student and son of Brajesh Kumar Yadav from Ramkheda village in Kannauj, was found unconscious on July 7 in the school’s Yagyashala, bleeding from his nose and ears. He was rushed to the Government Medical College but was declared dead on arrival, police said.
An 18-year-old student has been arrested in connection with the alleged murder of a 13-year-old boy at Shri Gurukul Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, a residential institute in Tilhar, Shahjahanpur. The arrest followed a joint investigation by Shahjahanpur police and the Special Operations Group (SOG).
The victim, Anurag Yadav, a Class 6 student and son of Brajesh Kumar Yadav from Ramkheda village in Kannauj, was found unconscious on July 7 in the school’s Yagyashala, bleeding from his nose and ears. He was rushed to the Government Medical College but was declared dead on arrival, police said.
A post-mortem report confirmed a severe head injury and skull fracture caused by a blunt object. Police launched a murder probe, examined 26 students, and recovered blood-stained clothes and broken sticks. Interrogation of four students who had been sleeping near Anurag led to the arrest of Ram Lakhan, a Class 10 aspirant from Lakhimpur district, who confessed to the crime.
According to police, the two students argued over sleeping space. Ram Lakhan waited until others were asleep, then kicked Anurag on the head and punched him multiple times near the ear. He returned to his mat without alerting anyone. At 3:30 am, other students noticed blood and tried to raise an alarm, but were allegedly silenced by Ram Lakhan, who later pretended to discover the incident himself.
During questioning, Ram Lakhan admitted his lower garment was stained with blood during the assault. He hid it in his trunk, intending to wash it later. The police have recovered the garment. The accused had failed Class 10 in 2025 and was staying at the Gurukul for the past nine months without formal enrolment due to the absence of a transfer certificate.
Anurag’s father said his son was admitted to class 7 on April 12 and was staying in the hostel. “On July 4, Anurag called and said, ‘Papa, please come here, I need to talk to you.’ I couldn’t go due to work. I called the Gurukul authorities several times but got no response. On Tuesday morning, we received a call from the school saying he was ill. I found him dead at the hospital,” said Brajesh Yadav.
The school manager, Pranav Arya, said Anurag and another student may have gone to sleep in the Yagyashala due to the heat. “Police have checked all CCTV footage. The claim that we didn’t respond to the parent’s call is incorrect. We are cooperating with the investigation,” he said.
The Gurukul, affiliated with Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, has 140 students, with 12 in Class 6.
Superintendent of police Rajesh Dwivedi said, “The accused student has been arrested. He admitted to committing the crime over a minor altercation.”
