Kanpur: A gurukul school director and his alleged girlfriend were arrested in connection with the murder of an 11-year-old boy in Lucknow after investigators said autopsy report, interrogation and CCTV footage showed the child was subjected to severe torture for three to four days.The director, a resident of Chhatarpur, MP, who was running a gurukul in a rented house in Lucknow, said: “The child was unable to adjust to the gurukul traditions and remained mischievous throughout the day. . I made him stand barefoot in the sun for several hours. I stripped him, beat him with sticks and kicked him. He fell and hit his head against the wall. I then pressed his mouth shut and punched his back several times. He lost consciousness. When I checked, the boy was dead. I later left his body outside his house in Kanpur and fled in a car.”Boy’s father had enrolled him in the gurukul on April 15. After his funeral on Thursday, police arrested the director and his alleged girlfriend, also from Chhatarpur.The accused also told investigators that while all other children were served food, the boy was denied meals, and whenever he cried out of hunger, he was beaten with sticks.The accused said that after news of the boy’s death spread, children gathered at the gurukul. He called his accomplice, who sent all the children to their homes. Later, they broke CCTV cameras installed on the premises, booked a taxi and fled after dumping the boy’s body near his house.ADCP Anjali Vishwakarma stated that “the footage of the past three days was shocking.” It showed the accused brutally thrashing the child for three days, making him stand with his hands up in the scorching sun for hours and leaving him hungry . ACP Chakeri Abhishek Pandey said CCTV footage showed the child secretly eating food of other children.A case has been registered under sections 103(1) (murder) and 238/3(5) BNS (causing the disappearance of evidence or giving false information to screen an offender). Both of them were sent to jail.DCP, east, Satyajit Gupta stated that the gurukul director beat the child for not obeying and admitted this, and that his girlfriend tried to destroy evidence from the gurukul. .The accused admitted to having brutally beaten the child over a period of three day
