Six months on, 12-year-old fire mishap victim remains in trauma

HYDERABAD: Parents of 12-year-old T. Hanivardhan Reddy, who was seriously injured in a fire mishap at Keesara's Swaminarayan Gurukul International School on February 11, alleged that the management took no responsibility in helping with his recovery, which has already cost them over Rs 11 lakh.

"All they did was pay Rs 25,000 on the third day of treatment and that too under pressure from the media," said Naresh Thummala, paternal uncle of the student.

The students were forming a human pyramid while a stuntman was performing a fire-breathing stunt. A long tongue of flame fell on the students, injuring three of them.

The students were taken to a room backstage. “We were not allowed into that room for about 20 minutes and we're shocked to see teachers trying to clean their wounds with water and peeling off the skin," said T. Srinivas Reddy, father of the victim.

The school took Hanivardhan Reddy to a quack in Bandlaguda who told them that his body had turned black because of the soot. The parents took him home but his condition worsened. They took him to two hospitals, which turned them away. At Apollo Hospitals, the doctors shifted him to the ICU where he stayed for several days.

"He hasn't recovered from the incident mentally and is scared of minute things like riding a bicycle," the uncle told Deccan Chronicle adding that the student had been shifted to a smaller school for a change of surroundings.

The family was taken aback when the earlier school management accused them of extortion. "That's when we decided to go to court," said the father, who is handicapped in his right hand.

Asked about the charges, Ramchandra, director or the school, refused to comment saying the matter was sub-judice. Principal Sridhar said she had joined the school only a month ago and had no information about the issue.