5-year-old boy dies under mysterious circumstances at Delhi madrasa

New Delhi: A five-year-old boy studying at a madrasa in northeast Delhi's Dayalpur has died under mysterious circumstances, police said on Saturday.

There were blisters on the boy's neck, abdomen and groin area, the police said.

According to the police, a call was received regarding the death of the boy in Brijpuri madrasa at 9.52 pm on Friday. "At 6.30 pm on Friday, the boy's mother was informed that her son was sick. She took him to a private hospital in Brijpuri, where doctors declared him dead," a police officer said.

She returned to the madrasa with her son's body and a large crowd gathered there. They kept the body on the road and demanded action action against the madrasa administration, the officer said.

Later the police reached the spot and shifted the body to the mortuary of GTB Hospital. They also assured proper investigation into the matter following which the crowd dispersed, the officer said.

The mother, who is a domestic help in west Delhi's Punjabi Bagh area, told police that her son was studying at the madrasa for the past five months. The boy's father lives in Uttar Pradesh and visits Delhi once a month. The couple has two more children, a 10-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl, who live with the mother.

"Preliminary examination of the body revealed a large number of eruptions, blisters on the neck, abdomen and groin area," the police said in a statement.

Haji Din Mohammad is the principal of the madrasa, where about 250 boys study. Of these, 150 are from outside Delhi, primarily from Uttar Pradesh, the police said. More details will be revealed after the postmortem, another officer said, adding that further investigation is underway.