Bhubaneswar, Dec 17: While the suspicious death of a student in a Bhubaneswar-based residential school had wreaked a buzz in Keonjhar, the autopsy report revealed it a case of murder.
The victim, a Class IX boy identified as Shiba Munda was strangulated to death by a handful boarders in the hostel toilet, over past enmity, said Police.
Acting on it, the Commissionerate Police on Wednesday arrested 11 accused persons including three classmates of the deceased. While, the three Juveniles were remanded to the reformatory on the charges of murder, 8 officials of the institution were sent to judicial custody for their conspiracy to cover-up the incident, misleading the police and the bereaved parents.
The arrestees are identified as Additional CEO of the organization Pramod Kumar Patra, Senior Academic Coordinator Prasanna Kumar Malla, Headmaster Rashmi Ranjan Nayak, Teacher Pradip Das, TGT Binay Kumar Gochhi, Assistant Field Officer Hemanta Kumar Mohapatra, Hostel supervisor Subhakant Behera and Asst. teacher Sujata Mishra.
Shedding light on the sensitive murder case involving a group of notorious juveniles, Twin-City Commissionor S Dev Datta Singh said, the institution authorities had concealed the fact and frantically endeavored to cover up the case, terming it a case of heart-attack. Infact, the boy was strangulated to death in the hostel toilet over past enmity by a group of hostel boarders allegedly by three classmates of Shiba Munda, the victim. They killed him reportedly over accidental splling of dal while dinning together a couple of days ago, suggested the primary investigation.
Underlining the prima facie of the case, the CP said, the boy was admitted to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar on December 12 with grievous injuries in his body. Meanwhile, he succumbed to the injuries on the day. Following this, the school authorities reported the boy’s parents that their lad died of a heart attack while he was in the lavatory and handed over the body to them. Accordingly, the parents carried it to their native place in Keonjhar where they discovered grievous, bled injuries in his body with a ligature mark around his neck and thus suspected a foul play. Consequently, the locals staged a violent protest putting the rotted body on the street demanding a thorough probe into the matter. They also lodged a complaint with the Keonjhar Police in this connection.
As the tension escalated, the Keonjhar Town Police lodged a ‘Zero FIR’ on it, registered an UD Case & seized the body for post-mortem. Subsequently, a report on it was sent to the Infocity Police in Bhubaneswar for reference. Meanwhile, on 17th December the police acknowledged the Post Mortem report that revealed, the boy was killed by strangulating his neck, Singh also said.
With the crucial revelation, the Keonjhar police turned the UD Case into a murder case and transferred it to the Infocity Police for further investigation.Accordingly, the Commissionerate Police swung into action, initiated investigation again from the crime scene which was under lock & key by police, and unveiled the modus operandi of the case, Singh added.
Further investigation into the case is underway while manhaunts are on to spot one juvenile accused that is on the run, the CP added.
