On October 23, Abhinav, a Vasant Kunj resident, boarded the school bus as usual to return back home. However, he did not reach home. His father Col S B Singhal registered a missing complaint on the same day with the Vasant Kunj Police station. The next day, a case of kidnapping was registered.

Since the family was aware that Abhinav was being threatened by Charanjit who had also been exhorting money from him in the past, suspicion fell on Charanjit, a resident of Mehrauli and a student of class XII.

Further investigation by the Vasant Kunj police revealed that Charanjit and Abhinav had a fight in the bus and the irate bus driver had asked them to get off at Andheria Mor.

On closer questioning, Charanjit said he had taken Abhinav to the Mehrauli jungles andthen stoned him to death. In his statement, Charanjit said he wanted ``avenge the insult'' which he had suffered.

It seems, one of Abhinav's friends was being bullied by Charanjit. This friend went and complained to his elder brother who in turn threatened Charanjit of dire consequences if his younger brother was not left alone. ``Since this boy was strong and influential, Charanjit decided to pick on Abhinav who was easy to catch,'' said Praveen Singhala, Abhinav's greiving uncle.

According to Singhala, the school is also to be blamed. ``They don't have a conductor and hence did not know whether Abhinav had boarded the bus or not,'' said Singhal. ``If they had been little careful, this incident could have been easily avoided,'' he added.

The school principal N O Scaria said, ``No complaint of the bullying incident was registered in the school. The news comes as a shock for us,'' and added that he was not aware of anybody else complaining about Charanjit.

The neighbours, shocked by the incident saidthat it was surprising that a simple boy like Abhinav had been a victim of such a perverse act.

The other students in the school testify that Charanjit, son of a retired Army officer who drives a taxi for a living, was known to be a bully in school and there were many who had to suffer him silently.

It is not clear as yet if the family has registered a complaint with the school officially or not.