Saurav was in school on Wednesday, a holiday otherwise, to work on an English project. Seven of his classmates were also there, waiting for their group leader and teacher to arrive before they started working on a newspaper they were supposed to make as part of the project.

Peering over the railing of the third floor corridor, Saurav spotted a chart lying on the narrow ledge below. ``In a flash he was down on the ledge, even as we kept telling him not to do it,'' says Uday Bhanot, a classmate. ``He picked up the chart and climbed back. He looked at the chart, realised it had nothing do with our class and threw it back on the ledge.''

This ``daring act'' apparently madeSaurav a little flippant. He asked Uday for his wallet and threw it down on the ledge. ``He took my wallet, asked me how much money there was in it and just threw it,'' adds Uday. ``He wanted me to go down and get it but I told him that I wouldn't. The wallet had only Rs 30 and I said that I would ask the peon to pick it up. All of us told Saurav not to bother.''

Saurav went down, anyway. ``Since he had gone down once earlier, he was not very careful this time,'' says Brother Joy Joseph, principal of the school. ``The ledge is just one foot wide and Saurav lost his balance. We rushed him to the hospital and he was admitted to the ICU.'' ``Initially we did not know what to do,'' says Uday.

``The girls started crying as we ran down to the ground floor. There were some boys sitting there after tennis practice and they went to call the principal. I ran out of the gate and found a classmates parent just going to drive off in his car. We put Saurav in the car.''

The statement of all the eye-witnesses havebeen recorded and a case has been registered under Section 304 (causing death due to negligence) at the Ashok Vihar police station. A post-mortem on the body was done earlier in the day.

The parents have however not initiated this action. ``We don't suspect any foul play or negligence on part of the school,'' says Raj Gupta, Saurav's father. ``We have not registered any complaint at the police station.''

Despite the distraught father's statement, there is a hushed whisper about negligence doing the rounds in the parent community. Though the school was officially closed on Wednesday for Eid, a number of students were present.

``Teachers were around at the time,'' clarifies Joseph.