BENGALURU: A 35-year-old software engineer had desperately sought a refund of `2.5 lakh from a tutorial, which allegedly fell back on its word to get the former’s two children — aged seven and three — admitted in a reputed city school.
The techie, Ritesh Kumar, a resident of Lal Bahadur Shastri Nagar in Kaggadaspura, had merely threatened to immolate himself, believing that the tutorial owner Aditya Bajaj (35) would return the money out of fear of the act being committed in front of him. But in doing so, Ritesh actually set himself ablaze by mistake, dying in the process.
The incident occurred on Thursday, but Ritesh succumbed to 80 per cent burns the next day, leaving behind a grieving and angry wife Parul Mahensaria and two little children for whom he had sought admission to the reputed school.
Ritesh Kumar, who worked with a private firm, was a native of Patna, Bihar, and resided at HAL. According to the police, he had paid a sum of approximately `2.5 lakh to Aditya Tutorials — an academic tutorial institute — to get his seven-year-old son and three-year-old daughter admitted to the high-end school in Indiranagar.
Kumar chose Aditya Tutorials as his sister had studied at the same institute.However, the institute was unable to get his children admitted in the school, following which he had asked for a full refund of the ` 2.5 lakh that he had paid.
According to the complaint registered with the police by his wife, Parul Mahensaria, Bajaj had returned only `1.25 lakh and repeatedly asked for more time to return the balance. She told the police that from the past 7-8 days, Bajaj had changed his stance, and had allegedly told Kumar, “I will not return your money even if you die.”