Officials in Telangana on Wednesday ordered a probe into the death of a Class 4 student at a hostel in the government-run tribal welfare residential school in Khammam town.  The nine-year-old was found dead with grievous injuries on Tuesday evening.

The local Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) Project Officer Pamela Satpathy visited the school and sought a detailed report. before suspending the school's headmaster G Venkateshwara Rao and hostel warden Pratap Singh for negligence.

He also extended his condolences to the bereaved family even as the accused, another minor, was taken into custody by the police. 

Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that the boy died during a fight with the senior student, aged 15. The accused allegedly hit the victim with a trunk box on his head and other body parts, resulting in his death on the spot.

Since the residential school runs classes up to Class 4, the accused was studying in a private school but was staying at the same premises. Both the students were said to have gone around the town on a bicycle in the morning.

On their return to the hostel, they started to fight, though the motivation behind the fight was not immediately clear. The elder one thrashed the younger minor severely, causing him to bleed to death.

The hostel warden or any staff member were apparently not around when the incident occurred. Alerted about the body of a student lying in the hostel, the warden called the police.

The incident triggered tension in the area as the relatives of the deceased and leaders of students' groups ransacked the premises. They demanded action against the hostel warden for his negligence and justice for the deceased's family.

Police shifted the victim's body for autopsy before handing it over to the family of the deceased. An investigation has been launched.

IANS inputs