The conductor, usually sprightly, did not move and stared into nothing, perhaps used to this teacher-parent exchange at every bus stop. Paranoid and obsessive mothers in the school WhatsApp group were relieved that bus conductors and drivers will no longer come near their children. A bar association in Gurugram even went ahead and passed a resolution asking its members not to represent the accused. I did not hear that confession, but I did hear Ashok’s aged father, claiming in a feeble voice that his son was innocent. Ashok, his father said, had told him that he had only carried Pradyuman’s blood-splattered body to the school staff car that took him to hospital.

Source: Indian Express November 13, 2017 19:18 UTC