A teenager who kept his family in the dark for a year after failing his Std XI exams ran away from home fearing his secret would be exposed during the upcoming HSC exams. Cops found him a fortnight later in Hyderabad, where he had started working at a sweet shop so he could pay his father back for the lost tuition fees.

18-year-old Arif Khan (name changed) is a resident of Bandra (east) and studied at a local college. As the only child in the family, he was pampered by his parents. But when he failed the Std XI exams last year, he couldn’t face them. Instead, he played out an elaborate ruse through the year, pretending to attend Std XII. Arif didn’t even object when his father gave him R20,000 to enrol in a tuition class. The entire year, he would leave home and stay out late enough to convince his parents he was at class.