ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Toddler, youth die bizarre deaths in Kanpur

Sharat Pradhan in Kanpur

Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh's industrial hub, witnessed two bizarre incidents on Monday, March 15. Three children lynched a toddler while a young man slit his own neck in a temple.

In the first incident, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl was beaten and stoned to death by three children aged between five and six years.

According to the police, the three assailants, identified only as Adil, Saddam and Shahrukh, have been taken into custody for killing Parveen.

The children said they were angry with Parveen because she often bit them. "She would dig her teeth in until we started bleeding," Shahrukh told the police.

On Sunday evening, she came out of her house when the three children were playing and clung to Salman, but just as she tried to bite him, the trio attacked her. As the toddler tried to run away, they pushed her down and stoned her to death, the police reported.

The children informed their parents about the incident without realising that Parveen had died. The parents tried to hush the matter up, until the girl's body was recovered from a dry pond in the neighbourhood. The children have been detained in a reformatory home.

In the second incident, 25-year-old Vicky Singh walked into a local temple with his 13-year-old brother and before anyone there realised what was happening, slashed his own neck with a sharp weapon. Shocked onlookers rushed him to hospital, but he was declared dead on arrival.

Police, who described the incident as a "weird happening", have as yet found nothing to explain why the young man ended his life in such a horrible manner.

UNI

Yeh Hai India

Tell us what you think of this report