A cruel prank: Mischief turns sour as victim’s father dies during search

The government schoolteacher was locked in a tiny washroom cubicle for 19 hours

HYDERABAD: Pranks can be funny. They can often be cruel too. Especially when they result in causing grievous harm to the person at the receiving end.

A government schoolteacher in Hyderabad was locked up in the school’s toilet for a whole day and night. Mischief managed. It, however, took a turn for the worse when his father was killed in a road accident while searching for his ‘missing’ son.

The ill-fated episode began on Tuesday when 42-year-old Shahid Leghari, a teacher at the Government Primary School GOR Colony, was allegedly locked up in the toilet a few minutes before the school closed for the day. When he failed to show up at home until late night, his 75-year-old father, Muhammad Yaqoob, set out on foot to search for him.

“He was walking towards the Technical College when motorcyclists hit him, leaving him seriously injured,” said another of his sons, Majid Laghari, who is a clerk in the court. Laghari later died in the hospital.

While this tragedy transpired, Shahid was still caged in the minuscule toilet where he neither had anything to eat or drink, nor enough space to lie down. He reportedly spent 19 hours in this condition until the school reopened on Wednesday morning. “They took away my mobile phone and when I entered the toilet, they locked it from the outside,” said Shahid.

According to his brother, the family found Shahid in an upset and excited state when he was brought back home. “He seemed lost. Couldn’t even express sorrow over our father’s death,” Majid told The Express Tribune.

Intrigue

While the act of locking up the teacher is being narrated as a joke or mistake and the death as its unintended consequence, Majid accuses the school headmaster and other teachers of often blackmailing his brother. “They coaxed my brother to withdraw Rs280,000 from his advanced salary loan three years ago and so far, they have paid back only Rs220,000,” he claimed, adding that whenever Shahid approcahed the headmaster, Shamsuddin Ujjar, and the other teachers who had distributed the money among themselves, they caused problems for him.

For the last several days, Ujjar was marking his brother absent from work and scolding him for coming late to school or leaving early, he said. Majid alleged that the incident of locking up his brother in the toilet was another way to punish him so he could be suppressed.

The headmaster, meanwhile, admitted that he and other teachers had borrowed money from Shahid, but claimed the amount had been returned. He also confessed that when he came to the school the next day, he saw Shahid being taken out of the toilet after having spent the whole night there. He, however, declined to admit whether the incident was a deliberate one.

Shahid and Majid both alleged that the gatekeeper, Riaz Multani, and teacher, Bashir Khizar, were involved. Majid believes they did so on the instructions of the headmaster. Ujjar, however, says he left the school before this happened. Majid says he will register an FIR of the incident and nominate Ujjar, other teachers and the gatekeeper.

Meanwhile, the district education officer Nadir Soomro has formed an inquiry committee, which will investigate the matter on January 30 and submit a report to his office. He told The Express Tribune that he will take action against those involved in the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2015.