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 one of the reasons behind the cold-blooded murder of the 12-year-old boy. The four people arrested include Hindi teacher of the school, Nazia Hussain besides her husband, Arif Ansari, their 12-year-old daughter and the prime accused, 16-year-old son of the teacher.
As per the police investigation, Vinay was killed in the staff quarter of the school which incidentally was the house where the teacher lived with her two children. Even as the 16-year-old has been arrested for killing Vinay, Nazia and her daughter were arrested for helping the prime accused by destroying evidences of crime and Arif was arrested for abetting in the crime by encouraging the two to erase all the marks for the ghastly incident. A case has been registered under IPC Sections 302/34.
“The incident was carried out by son of Nazia Hussain, however, all the family members were involved in destroying evidence after the incident happened. They cooperated to the maximum (in destroying evidences),” said Ranchi SSP, Kuldeep Dwivedi.
Police investigation stresses that on February 5 Vinay was invited by the prime accused at his mother’s quarter to enjoy food, however, the invitation turned into an altercation over ties between Vinay and the 12-year-old girl that culminated in the brutal assault on the victim by the 16-year-old accused.
Vinay was brutally thrashed in stomach and his head was banged against the wall of the room as he tried to flee the place. Subsequently, the three accused — Nazia, her son and daughter — tried to move Vinay to undisclosed location but they dropped the body from the first floor thus aggravating the wound further, said the police investigation.
However, police remained tight-lipped about the extent to which Vinay and the 12-year-old girl maintained ties with each other.
“They (three accused except Arif) washed blood stains from corridor railing, corridor, floor and marks left inside the house. They used wiper and clothes to clean blood stains,” maintained the Ranchi SSP adding, “We discovered blood stains after intensely searching the room and outside. They ignored the overhead CCTV camera which recorded all the evidences that can be scientifically proven.”
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.