With the entire city is up in arms over the gruesome death of 12-year old Vinay Mahto, found bleeding profusely near the teacher’s hostel of his school early morning on Friday, family members of the unfortunate victim have demanded a high-level probe in the case as the murder mystery remains unsolved even two days later.
Father of the ill-fated child Manbahal Mahto while blaming the Ranchi police of incompetence and even fearing a cover-up demanded for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation.
“Police officials are not able to tell us why and how Vinay went to the teachers’ hostel in the dead of the night. Initially, a teacher was accused of murdering him, now there is a theory that he committed suicide. Investigations have been a mess since the beginning. The case should be handed over to CBI,” Mahto came out and said on Sunday.
He further added that this demands will be strongly raised after completing Vinay’s last rites. Vinay, a standard VII student of Sapphire International School, was found near the entrance to the teacher’s quarters in the school premises bleeding from severe injuries in the head and face.
Police personnel continued looking for evidence related to the case at the school campus. Nine persons are still being interrogated by police officials for a breakthrough in the case, sources said. “Investigation and evidence collection is going on in the case. We are leaving no stone unturned. The blood-soaked drill machine we found is also being checked. Although we are still awaiting for a word on it from State Forensic Sciences laboratory. Prima facie it seems the drill was used for killing the boy.
The post-mortem report also supports this theory,” stated Superintendent of Police (City) Kishor Kaushal.
The demands of Vinay’s parents for a high-level probe were also echoed by several political and social outfits. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, leading Opposition party in state, demanded the murder case to be investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Congress has also assured that they will appeal to High Court of Jharkhand to look hand over the case to a competent authority. Ranchi Abhibhavak Manch also payed their tributes to Vinay near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Morhabadi. Chairman Ajay Rai expressed his suspicion over the role of school administration in the matter.
On its part, the district police have issued an advisory to all residential and day school of the city instructing those to tighten their security arrangements for the sake of their students’ safety. The schools, especially residential ones, have been asked to monitor their campuses using CCTV cameras, appoint vigilant guards, behavioural monitoring of the teachers and keep an eye on their students movements.