A 15-year-old boy lost vision in his right eye after a clash between two groups that were playing cricket in a park in Chintadripet.
Police on Wednesday arrested four minors in connection with the incident, even as doctors at the Government Ophthalmic Hospital said there was no chance even for an eye transplant.
Police sources said Mohammad Shabir (15) son of labourer Mohammad Akeel, who was studying in a Madrasa near Ritchie street, was playing cricket in the May Day Park in Chintadripet on Monday when a clash broke out between two groups.
Shabir, who was admitted to the Government Ophthalmic Hospital, recalled that he had gone to the park from the Madrasa along with five others to play cricket on Monday evening. “When we were playing, another group of boys from the area took our ball and refused to return it,” he recalled.
An argument broke out and, as the teenager recalled, the opposite gang began to beat them. Police sources said Shabir was hit with a cricket stump that pierced his right eye. “A piece of it got stuck in his eye and he told us that he removed it himself,” said Shabir’s elder brother Sadam Hussein.
Passersby and residents noticed the boy bleeding and informed the Madrasa. The boy was rushed to the Government Ophthalmic Hospital.
The boy’s father said he migrated from Bihar 40 years ago and had settled in Thiruvottiyur, where he works as a watchman. He has five children. “I admitted Shabir, my second son, to the Madrasa two years back. Now, he has lost his eye and his future,” Akeel said.
Mohammad Nazim Akthar, who is incharge of the Madrasa, said the boys regularly used to play in the park, but this was the first time they faced such a problem.
However, residents of Chintadripet claimed that boys from the local slum often picked up fights with those who come from other areas to play at the park.
Meanwhile, police arrested four boys on Wednesday. Not convinced with police action, family members and members of TMMK party, who came to the police station to support the boy, attempted to block the road demanding the arrest of two other boys involved in the incident. “We have arrested four boys. We conducted an inquiry with two other boys who were there at the park at the time of the incident. But they were not involved in the fight. So, we sent them back home,” said a police official.
A senior doctor at the Government Ophthalmic Hospital said Shabir had permanently lost vision in his right eye. “It is damaged so badly that there is no chance for a transplant. It will take a month for him to recover. We will discharge him in a week’s time,” the doctor said.