BENGALURU: The 17 year-old first-year PU student had scored 93 per cent in CBSE, and was determined to improve his score in PUC with his favourite subjects Physics, Chemistry, Math and Biology (PCMB).
Today, he is the newest entrant to the Special Home for Children in Conflict with Law in the city run by an NGO, ECHO. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) recently ordered him to undergo three years of institutional reformation and rehabilitation for killing his father and sister, and attempting to murder his mother under Section 18(1)(g) of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, 2015.
Hemanth (name changed) had pleaded guilty before the JJB. He bears a deep scar on his neck after he cut his vocal cords in an attempt to end his life after he murdered his older sister and father, and grievously injured his mother, thinking that she too had died.
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As luck would have it, he survived and so did his mother. She has been rendered incapacitated with 87 stitches on her person and the darkest memory of that June night this year, which changed their lives forever. He speaks less but his story, no words can do justice to.
Hemanth, from Koppal Rural district, was academically bright and unlike many of his peers, wanted to pursue higher studies with PCMB combination and scale greater heights. With 93 per cent, he hoped to get admission in a good college.
“His family insisted that instead of Biology, Hemanth should opt for Computer Science and take up PCMC in PU since his sister was doing her graduation with PCMB as core subjects. He resisted and begged them many times to let him study PCMB.
But his parents and sister prevailed upon him and got him admission in a good PU college with PCMC. Hemanth passed first-year PU with 81 per cent. But this year, in second-year PU, his grades fell. He failed in some and scored zero in two subjects, including Computer Science. He slipped into depression and attempted suicide on a couple of occasions, when he tried to come under moving vehicles,” sources told TNIE.
Meanwhile, they added that family, social and college pressure started building on him and he further withdrew into a shell. “One night in June after dinner, when the family went to bed, Hemanth took out the kitchen knife and first fatally attacked his sister, followed by his father.
His mother woke up and was horrified as she watched her son on a killing spree. He tried to kill her too, but she survived. Later, he cut his vocal cords in a bid to end his life. The neighbours, on hearing his mother scream, broke open the back door and entered the house. They called police and Hemanth was arrested.
He and his mother were admitted to hospital. She was in the ICU for a month,” said sources. As Hemanth struggles to grapple with the new reality, the government and ECHO are trying to get him back to academics. “His Class 10 marks card and transfer certificate from school are missing.
The school has clarified that they had issued both to him but when his grandparents searched his house in the presence of the District Child Protection Officer, they did not find any document,” said sources. “He is a normal boy; hardly talks but takes part in all activities inside the special home -- yoga, meditation, academics, music, sports and farming etc,” added sources.
Hemanth is now on a different path; studying the state syllabus, with a different and softer academic stream of History, Economics, Political Science and Sociology (HEPS) as his core subjects. For those who know him, his is a rare and once-in-a lifetime-kind of story, that could have shaped differently.