Dharmu’s mother

Bhopal, Jan. 3: A Class X boy stepped out of his exam hall today to shoot a Class VIII student dead in a Madhya Pradesh village, scripting the country’s second known school shooting within a month of the first.

Rohit Singh (name changed), the 16-year-old son of a Thakur landlord, suspected tribal boy Dharmu Kol, 14, of wooing his sister, said villagers in Satna district’s Chorbani, 440km southeast of Bhopal.

As soon as the day’s mid-term exam paper had ended at 1pm, Rohit accosted Dharmu, who too had emerged from his class. After a few heated words, the boys broke into a scuffle that ended with Rohit whipping out a .12-bore country-made revolver and shooting Dharmu at point-blank range.

Satna police said the victim was declared dead on arrival at the nearby government hospital.

District police chief Kamal Singh Rathore was not sure about the motive, but villagers said Rohit had yesterday warned the younger boy to keep away from his sister.

Rathore said the accused had been detained and the revolver seized.

The authorities at the government-run school declined comment.

The country’s first school shooting took place on December 11 in Gurgaon, where two Class VIII students killed classmate Abhishek Tyagi to avenge alleged bullying, raising fears of a US-style gun culture invading Indian classrooms.

Villagers painted the Chorbani murder as a sort of “honour killing”. Satna, which lies on the Mumbai-Howrah rail route, has a history of caste violence.

The landless Kols work over 12 hours a day for the upper caste families, either on their farms for paanch-paua majoori (a daily wage of 1.25kg of grain) or in their illegal stone quarries for Rs 50 a day.

Anil Sadgopal, an educator at Delhi’s Nehru Memorial, cited three reasons for the growing violence in schools.

“One, the media and films constantly glorify violence. Two, cases like the BMW hit-and-run are strengthening the impression that the rich can get away with anything. Three, our school curricula offer little scope for creativity, which can provide an outlet for negative emotions.”

The two 14-year-old accused in Gurgaon, Agastya and Vikram (names changed), have been denied bail and are in remand homes.