Dayanand Public School student Sudhanshu Kumar, who was shot at and wounded in his classroom last month, will have to live with the bullet inside his body for at least a year.

Doctors at Christian Medical College, Vellore, where the 17-year-old was taken earlier this month have refused to operate on the boy right now primarily for two reasons: one, Sudhanshu is still too weak to undergo a major surgery; two, the bullet shot from a 7.65 pistol is precariously lodged in his vertebral column, close to his punctured and provisionally repaired left lung.

Sudhanshu's father Devendra Kumar Gupta, a lawyer at Jamshedpur civil courts and resident of Mango, told The Telegraph over phone from Vellore that they had been asked to come for a re-examination after a year.

"Several tests were conducted here. But, after their thorough examination, surgeons decided against an operation now," Gupta said, adding that their hopes had been dashed. "The bad news is doctors haven't promised us that they will be able to remove the bullet even after a year. They have said a surgery may be possible only if a fresh round of examinations suggest conducive conditions."

Sudhanshu was inadvertently shot at by a classmate, who was carrying two guns in his bag, before the school assembly on June 22 morning. The school management had rushed the teenager to Tata Main Hospital while the accused student, a resident of Mango, was nabbed.

Doctors at the hospital managed to repair Sudhanshu's bleeding left lung, but weren't confident enough to remove the bullet stuck in his spine. So, Gupta took his boy to Vellore, hoping for a solution, on July 9.

The father-son duo are expected to return to Jamshedpur on Friday.

Do you think the boy's parents should take a second opinion? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com