Fourteen-year-old Abhishek Tyagi, a Class VIII student, was standing in queue, waiting to board the bus, when classmates Akash Yadav and Vikas Yadav showed up. Akash allegedly pulled out a pistol from his socks and shot Abhishek point blank. It’s alleged that he pulled the trigger four times and then handed the pistol to Vikas who fired the last shot.

Three bullets hit Abhishek, one in the head, two in the chest. He died on the spot. According to the post-mortem report, the bullet to the head proved fatal.

“Stunned, both Akash and Vikas stood their ground,” recalled DCP Satheesh Balan. “The principal made the two boys sit in an empty classroom before calling the police while the other children were sent home.”

Balan said parents of both accused may also be prosecuted for negligence. The fathers are in the property business. Abhishek’s father is a transporter.

Abhishek’s body was kept in the playground, the very place he and Akash had fought last Friday. The cremation took place at the family’s ancestral village of Badshahpur, 6 km from the school.

“We were not scared because we didn’t know what exactly had happened,” said Sachin Gupta, a class VII student who was standing further down the line. “The younger students started crying and the teachers told us to keep quiet. After Abhishek’s body was moved to the ground, we were sent home.”

According to Commissioner of Police Mohinder Lal, Akash smuggled his father’s pistol to school by concealing it in his socks. “He then hid it in the bathroom and probably retrieved it just before the shooting,” said Lal.

Based on the questioning of the two boys, Lal said: “Abhishek was known for bullying and threatening other students in the school. He had threatened both Akash and Vikas in earlier fights, saying he would kill them. The parents and teachers seem to have failed in counselling the boys, leading to this incident.”

“Abhishek had told us about the fight and that the two boys had reconciled subsequently,” said Manoj Tyagi, Abhishek’s uncle.

“Principal Mamta Sharma has told us that she had called the parents of all three boys to the school a month ago and asked them to either take the children for counselling or enrol them in meditation classes,” said Balan.

According to Tyagi, all three boys had been fighting for the last couple of months. “We dismissed it as school scraps and never imagined that it would lead to this.”

Students said that complaints of the frequent fights had reached the principal who had reportedly told Abhishek not to hit anybody and inform her if someone provoked him.

“Though we knew of the fights, we never expected children to be capable of such violence. We cannot be held responsible for this violence as school children are not frisked while entering the campus,” said Satbir Yadav, chairman of Euro International. “Children are not expected to be carrying firearms.”

Both boys were produced before the district magistrate late this evening after their parents were “untraceable”. Policemen found both homes locked and the parents could not be reached on the phone. The two boys will be sent to the Sonepat Juvenile Justice home as Gurgaon does not have one.