Fifth grader left to die for Tk 2,500
“Please give me a pillow, I want to sleep with my parents,” 12-year-old Arafat moaned in pain when police rescued him from a sugarcane field in Pabna’s Ishwardi upazila early Monday. He had been lying there with a severe head injury for about 12 hours.
Influenced by an Indian crime show, three of his schoolmates tortured and tried to kill him for Tk 2,500. The attackers had promised the victim the money in exchange for a pair of roller skates, said police, quoting the three who have been arrested.
Arafat Hossain, a PSC examinee from Char Gargari village in the upazila, was in critical condition and undergoing treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.
Doctors were planning to shift him to Dhaka’s Combined Military Hospital (CMH) for a surgery on his head. He suffered excessive blood loss and skull damage, said the physicians.
Around 1:30am on Monday, a team from Ishwardi Police Station rescued Arafat from the sugarcane field, around 1km from his home. He had been there since about 2:00pm on Sunday, said Inspector (OC) Arbinda Sarkar of the police station.
Arafat, a fifth grader, was seen playing in front of his home before he went missing on Sunday afternoon. As he didn’t return home, his family members searched the entire village in vain. They then contacted the police.
Later that night, the law enforcers came to know the victim was attacked by the three school students -- two aged 13 and the other 14, said Arbinda.
During primary interrogation, the three, all class-VII students, confessed that they attempted to kill Arafat for a pair of roller skates, he said.
Based on information gleaned from them, police rescued Arafat and sent him to hospital.
“The arrestees hit the victim on the head with an iron rod and left him there thinking he was dead. The victim lay there for 12 hours with a severe head injury, fighting to survive,” said Arbinda.
Talking to The Daily Star, Arafat’s father Akmal Hossain, a local trader, said his son has two pairs of roller skates. Recently, one of the three boys took a pair, promising to pay Arafat Tk 2,500.
“Instead of paying the money, he planned to kill my son,” he said, demanding punishment for the arrestees.
On Monday night, Arafat’s uncle Abu Taher Mallik filed a case against several people, including the three, with the police station.
Yesterday, the three students gave confessional statements before a magistrate, said police and court sources.
The inspector said, “During interrogation, the three confessed that one of them made the plan to kill Arafat instead of giving him the money. The arrestees were inspired by a crime show they watched on TV.”
The arrestees would be sent to a juvenile correction centre, he added.
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