Hyderabad: 12-year-old imitates TV stunt, dies in accident

HYDERABAD: In a tragic incident, a 12-year-old boy succumbed to burn injuries he received while trying to imitate a stunt he had seen on a TV show.
According to officials from the Balapur police station, the incident occurred at a house in Venkatapuram, on Thursday night, with Jaideep Madugula, having succumbed to his injuries early on Saturday morning.
Jaideep had been staying with his grandparents for the last five years. On Thursday night, he was watching a cartoon TV series after dinner. Now police presume that he was influenced by an act on the show.
“After dinner, his grandparents were busy with cleaning up and other work. In the meanwhile, the victim went to their terrace and shouted out for his grandfather, as he wanted to show him a stunt. Within minutes, the elderly couple said that they could only hear him shouting and screaming on the terrace. When they rushed to the terrace, they found him ablaze,” Balapur police inspector S Mohan Reddy told TOI.
The incident took place at night 10.30 pm. While, the elderly couple tried to douse the flames, it was too late as Jaideep was severely injured by the time. The young victim was immediately rushed to a private hospital, which then asked the grandparents to shift him to Osmania General Hospital.
The police have registered a case of suspicious death at the Balapur police station. Officials said that an inquiry is also being conducted to identify which show the boy was watching and how he got inflammable liquids.
Following the incident, child right’s activists claim that the parents and the producer of the particular TV show are to blame.
“The producers of such shows do not think about the consequences of portraying such violence on screen,” Achyuta Rao of the Balala Hakkula Sangham, said, adding that “parents needs to observe their children and inform them that these stunts are dangerous and even the harmless ones must be done only under supervision.”
This, however, is not the first case. A similar tragedy occurred last year as a 12-year-old boy in Karimnagar, Koduri Ghanashyam, died trying to imitate a fire-breathing stunt.