Four people, including a schoolteacher, have been arrested in connection with the murder of a student of Sapphire International School, Vinay Mahto. It has been suggested that honour killing could be the reason behind the cold-blooded murder of the 13-year-old boy. The four people arrested include the Hindi teacher of the school, Nazia Hussain besides her husband, Arif Ansari, their 12-year-old daughter and the prime accused, the 16-year-old son of the teacher.
As per the police, Vinay was beaten up by the teacher’s son and thrown from
the first floor of a residential building that housed the school staff, including Nazia and her family.
Even as the teacher’s son has been arrested for killing Vinay, Nazia and her daughter were arrested for destroying evidence of the crime and Arif was arrested for abetting as he was encouraging the two to erase all evidence of the ghastly incident. A case has been registered under IPC Section 302/34.
“The boy was murdered by Nazia Hussain’s son, however, all the family members were involved in destroying evidence after the killing. They cooperated to the maximum (in destroying evidence),” said Ranchi SSP, Kuldeep Dwivedi.
According to the police, on February 5 the teacher’s son invited Vinay to his house for dinner. However, soon a fight erupted between the
two boys over Vinay’s infatuation with the teacher’s 12-year-old daughter.
Vinay was repeatedly punched in the stomach by the older boy who also banged the teenager’s head against the wall as the hapless 13-year-old tried to flee. Subsequently, the three accused, Nazia, her son and daughter, tried to move the critically hurt Vinay to an undisclosed location but in their hurry they dropped Vinay from the first floor of the building injuring him further.
However, police remained tight-lipped about the extent to which Vinay and the 12-year-old girl maintained relationship with each other.
“They (three accused except Arif) washed the blood stains from the corridor, the railing, floor and the house. They used a wiper and cloth to clean the blood stains,” maintained the Ranchi SSP adding, “However, they forgot about the overhead CCTV camera which recorded the incident.”
Meanwhile, the deceased's parents have demanded a CBI probe. "I have already given in writing. I want a CBI enquiry," said Vinay's father.
Significantly, police investigation exonerated teachers — Anup Chakarverty, Dhruvanand Jena and Mantosh Sen — who were arrested on circumstantial evidences on February 5 and upon recovery of objectionable materials, morphed photograph besides, written marks on the wall. The arrested teachers were also produced in a local court.
“Prima facie the place of incident appeared to be near their room.
We had recovered certain materials that gave rise to the feeling that they are the culprit and we interrogated them. However, the scientific evidences which we found later in the investigation ruled out their involvement in the case,” expressed Dwivedi.
Nonetheless, the investigation process left several questions unanswered which also included role of the school administration. Police ruled out lapses on the part of the school administration and management’s direct involvement in the incident. A committee formed by Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi is looking into the lapses on the part of the school administration.
“I cannot comment anything on that as it falls under the scope of the district administration,” signed off the SSP.