The image of a six-year-old boy in a red T-shirt and denim jeans waving the tricolour from a police bus became one of the most striking moments of the student protests that rocked Patna last week. Days later, Aditya Kumar has returned to public attention after speaking in video interviews about his alleged detention and the treatment of his parents by the police.

Aditya had joined students and job aspirants protesting in Patna over alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations, including the 70th BPSC examination. He was seen at Dak Bungalow Chowk on August 25, where the protest had turned tense after demonstrators breached police barricades while marching towards Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary’s residence.

In videos that subsequently circulated widely, police personnel could be seen taking the child away from the protest site.

In an interview with KhabarByte, Aditya made serious allegations about what happened after he and his parents were taken away.

“Police hame Kotwali thana lekar gayi aur dhamkaya gaya ki, ‘Ab agar andolan mein jayenge toh marenge aur jail bhejenge.’ Humko daraya gaya aur mummy-papa ko maara gaya, (The police took us to the Kotwali police station and threatened us, saying, ‘If you join the protest again, we will beat you and send you to jail.’ We were intimidated, and my mother and father were beaten up),” he said.

The protests had begun on August 18, when students and job aspirants launched a sit-in at Gardanibagh, raising concerns about recruitment examinations. The agitation intensified a week later after the Bihar Public Service Commission announced changes to the pattern for the upcoming fourth Teachers Recruitment Examination, or TRE-4.

Under the revised pattern, the examination is to be conducted in two stages, while negative marking would continue in the objective papers. Aspirants demanded that TRE-4 be conducted through a single examination and without negative marking.

To press their demands, protesters called for a march to the chief minister’s residence on August 25. Hundreds of aspirants began marching from Gandhi Maidan and eventually reached Dak Bungalow Chowk after breaking through police barricades.
Police used water cannons and resorted to a lathi-charge after protesters breached the barricades, while several demonstrators were detained.

Aditya joined the protest at Dak Bungalow Chowk and soon drew the attention of journalists and other protesters. According to accounts from the protest, police initially tried to take him away but released him after media persons intervened.

Someone then handed the six-year-old a tricolour, which he began waving. When protesters climbed onto the top of a bus that had reportedly been brought to detain demonstrators, Aditya too climbed up and continued waving the national flag.

Police again attempted to take him away. Ranjit, who was accompanying Aditya, said, “In between I took aditya and started moving to my home, but suddenly police appeared before me and told me that my wife is waiting for me. I and Aditya followed the police.”

At around 1 pm, Aditya, Ranjit and his wife were reportedly placed in an ambulance. They were allegedly told that they would be taken home.

“We were reassured that we were being taken home, but instead, we were taken to the Kotwali police station.”

The police station is located barely 500 metres from Dak Bungalow Chowk.

The police have denied allegations of mistreatment. According to their version, Aditya was taken to the police station for his own safety and was later handed over to his mother. Reports said that the child remained at the police station for around five hours.

However, questions have been raised over the circumstances in which a six-year-old child participating in a public protest was taken away from the site and kept at a police station.

In another interview with Khabre Bharat, Aditya spoke about his future ambitions and his experience with the police. Asked whether he wanted to become a police officer when he grew up, he gave a firm response.

“Hum police kisi bhi haalat mein nahi banenge. Agar police bane, toh koi neta ya vidhayak dabaav banayega aur case likhne ko bolega,(We will never become police officers under any circumstances. If we do become police officers, some politician or MLA will pressure us and tell us to register a case),” he said.

He also claimed that a police officer offered him chocolate while he was at the station, but that he refused it because of the alleged treatment meted out to his parents.

“How could I eat a chocolate from the same police who detained my mother and father?” Kumar said.

Police personnel can also be heard asking the child where his parents were.

Aditya's presence at the protest quickly made him a viral figure on social media. Users shared videos of him speaking about education, jobs, the government and the police, with many describing him as the unexpected face of the protest.

Reports have also said that Aditya carries a copy of the Constitution in his school bag and has claimed to have read around 80 pages of it.

While the police have disputed the allegations of assault and intimidation, Aditya’s videos and his account of being taken to the Kotwali police station have ensured that the focus remains not only on the demands of Bihar's protesting students and job aspirants, but also on the police response to the demonstrations. 

The six-year-old's red T-shirt, tricolour and sharp questions have, in the process, turned him into one of the most recognisable images of the protest.