Sherwood boy’s death shrouded in deep mystery

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

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Muktsar, July 6

A class VII student of Sherwood College, a top residential school in Nainital, has died under mysterious circumstances allegedly from a gunshot wound. The 13-year-old was the son of the brother-in-law of a senior Punjab minister from Majha. 

Some village residents claimed the boy wished to study near Chandigarh. His school in Nainital had reopened on July 1 after the summer break, but he was unwilling to return.

Sources close to the family said the boy’s parents, on their way to drop him to school, halted at a farmhouse in Bajpur, Uttarakhand, on Thursday night. The following morning, a gunshot was heard from the boy’s room. He was found dead inside. A relative claimed he had died in “accidental firing,” but retracted later.

Janmejay Khanduri, SSP, Nainital, said he was not aware of the incident. An ASP posted in Nainital said he had been told a boy had died in a road mishap in Bajpur in Udham Singh Nagar district. But the Udham Singh Nagar SSP had no such information.

The body was brought to his native village near Malout late Friday evening at 7.30 pm and cremated in haste without legal formalities.

Speaking over the phone, the secretary of Sherwood College principal said they had heard the boy had died in an accident. “But his parents have not informed us yet.”