A Missionary boarding school, Children Home Academy, situated in Ranipokhri district near Rishikesh, Dehradun has come under scanner for allegedly trying to ‘hush up’ a gruesome crime that took place on its premises on March 10.
The school authorities have been found guilty of covering up the brutal hacking of Vasu Yadav, a 12-year-old boarding school student, by hurriedly burying the boy’s body on the campus after he was beaten to death with cricket bats and wickets by his seniors.
Several startling revelations have come fore which throws light on the laxity of the school authorities and the police in handling the crisis.
According to sources, there was a delay in taking the boy to the hospital after he was beaten by students of class 12 from the same school. And shockingly, the school buried the boy’s body inside the campus after doctors declared him dead without informing his parents.
In fact, as a cover-up, the school authorities, doctors of Jolly Grant hospital where the victim was taken hours after the incident and the Ranipokhri police authorities had maintained that the death was due to food poisoning. However, the autopsy reports later revealed that the victim died of internal bleeding and there were visible marks of injury on the body.
Yadav’s father, Pappu also said that he was informed over the phone that his son died of food poisoning. The autopsy was conducted only after the father approached the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Moreover, according to a report by Zee News, the role of the police authorities handling the entire incident also became questionable as the police initially were reluctant to take action against the school administrator, Sarkar Stephen.
Usha Negi, the chairperson of the Uttarakhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, whose intervention in the case led to the matter coming to light, told media that all possible attempts have been made to divert attention from the incident.
“The incident took place on March 10 and we were informed about it on March 11, following which we visited the school. However, when we got there, we found that the school administration had buried the body.” She told media, adding “they didn’t even bother to inform the parents, who live in Hapur, that their child had died”.
In the case which emerged on Wednesday, the victim was allegedly beaten up by his seniors who suspected him of stealing a packet of biscuit. The boy was beaten up inside a classroom and was there for the next few hours until the warden spotted him. Reports in local media said that not only was the boy beaten up by class XII students, they also tortured him and poured cold water on him and made him also drink the dirty water.
“He was beaten up in phases in the afternoon, while he was taken to hospital in the late evening,” SSP Dehradun Nivedita Kukreti told Times of India.
Meanwhile, two class XII students of the school have been arrested on charges of murder, under IPC section 302 and three school staffs, namely the sports teacher, the warden and hostel manager have been arrested under IPC section 201, causing the disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender.
In a similar incident last year, a boarding school in Dehradun had tried to cover up a gang rape of a class 10 girl by four other students which ultimately led the school to lose its CBSE license.
