The court of Justice Sanjay Dwivedi on Thursday ordered a CBI inquiry of the murder of Binay Kumar Mahto who was murdered on the campus of his school, Sapphire International School, on the intervening night of February 4 and 5 of 2016.
The court directed the CBI to complete the investigation in the next eight months. The judgment has come as a big victory for the family of Binay Mahto as his father Manbahal Mahto fought a legal battle from 2018 to get the case investigated by the CBI.
“My 12 years old son was a student in class seventh. I had admitted my son as a boarding student so that he gets a good education. But the school administration killed my son. They are powerful so they manage everything. But I decided not to back out but to fight till my son gets justice. Today the court ordered the CBI inquiry,” Manbahal said.
Police concluded it a case of revenge murder and arrested Hindi teacher Nazia Hussain, her husband Arif Ali Ansari and their two teenaged children on the charge of murder. Police claimed that Binay had a crush on the daughter of Nazia Hussain and Arif Ali who was a class VI student.
Police claimed that their son called the deceased at his school residence and hit Binay with a brass knuckle. His sister and parents were charged for assisting him and for allegedly concealing evidence. Since both were minors their case was transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board. They were acquitted later on due to lack of evidence. Parents too got bail. Ranchi police was unable to bring any conclusive evidence against them.
The family doubted that police had some ulterior motive behind carrying a shoddy investigation. A PIL was also filed by the Parents Association to seek CBI investigation. Manbahal Mahto approached the Jharkhand High Court in 2018 and later on knocked the door of the Supreme Court to seek a direction for the CBI inquiry. The Supreme Court directed him to first exhaust his options at the High court.
During the hearing the High court was convinced with concerns and objections raised by the father of the deceased about the police investigation. Advocate Jitendra S Singh and Randhir Kumar appearing on behalf of Manbahal Mahto explained how police botched-up and derailed the investigation. The forensic evidence produced by the police did not support the police theory.