During the investigations into the death of six-year-old Devyansh, a Class-I student, at Ryan International School’s Vasant Kunj branch, toys were found scattered along the passage from the Class to the water tank in which the boy was found dead on January 30. The recovery of toys in the passage led to various angles of suspicion. The police are investigating whether someone intentionally lined up the toys for Devyansh to follow them to the tank or was it a mere coincidence.
The father of Devayansh, Ramhet Meena had told The Pioneer that his child was trapped by somebody and taken to the tank intentionally. Meena had said, “He can’t go to the tank on his own. There is some foul play which school authorities are trying to hide.”
A team of forensic experts visited the school premises on Tuesday to piece together the sequence of events that led to the death of the child. “We are waiting for the forensic report as well as medical board’s opinion on the postmortem examination in connection with Devyansh’s death.”
However, the priliminary medical reports had stated that the child died of drowning. Also, the boy was alive when he fell into the tank, fell unconscious and later died due to asphyxia (a condition arising when the body is deprived of oxygen, causing unconsciousness or death; suffocation.) An officer also said, “The final report has not yet been submitted.”
Besides, in the last three days, police have questioned several teaching and non-teaching staff, including the principal of the school. The police have found significant differences in their statements leading investigators to major hindrance in determining the proper sequence of events in the case, the senior official said.
Meanwhile, some of the staff members have also come under the scanner and are suspected of tampering with evidence. If it turns out to be so, Section 201 of IPC will be added in the existing FIR, the official said.
The Delhi Government had also ordered a magisterial probe. In a similar incident which took place around three days before Divyansh’s death, a five-year-old boy had died after he fell into an open septic tank in a corporation-run school in southwest Delhi’s Kapashera area. Terming as “unfortunate” the death of children in both the cases, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response of the AAP Government, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and the school authorities.
Divyansh’s parents are both paramedical staff at AIIMS and the family lives in south Delhi’s Mehrauli area. The boy’s father termed it a conspiracy and alleged someone from the school was behind the incident. The family has demanded a CBI probe into the matter.