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Sainik school student’s death case: Family to challenge probe in court
In the chargesheet filed on December 14, the warden, the coach and the lifeguard were made accused in the case while the school principal and other teaching staff were given clean chit.
The family of Om Budholiya, class 11 Sainik School student who was found dead in school’s swimming pool on September 8, 2023, was unhappy with the chargesheet that gave clean chit to the principal and other teaching staff.
The deceased’s father on Thursday said the three-month-long investigation was unsatisfactory and that they will challenge it in the court.
In the chargesheet filed on December 14, the Sarojini Nagar police gave clean chit to the school principal and other teaching staff and made the warden, coach and the lifeguard as accused in the case.
“We are yet to get the copy of the chargesheet, which was filed a week back. We came to know about the chargesheet from the media instead of the police. They never contacted us for any probe except during the FIR registration,” said Manoj Kumar, who is posted as a sub-inspector with 63 Battalion of CRPF at Ayodhya.
“It is important for us to know what went wrong with my son. School management tried to hide some thing and that needs to be probed,” he added.
Explaining the night of September 8, the father said, “A student of the same school had informed me about Om’s bad health but when I tried calling the school teacher and warden, they hung up. After which I sent a message but there was no response.” “When the same student called me again, I called the principal then but he also did not inform me of anything,” he said.
“In the chargesheet, warden Rajeev Verma, coach Satya Chauhan and life guard Himanshu Sharma have been found guilty of negligence and have been charged under 304a (death due to negligence),” said Shailendra Giri, SHO, Sarajoninagar.
“During the investigation, charges under 304 (culpable homicide was not found) was removed from the FIR,” the SHO added while mentioning the charge sheet was filed a week ago and no such foul play was found during the probe.
According to police, in the chargesheet, the names of the school principal, teacher and other school staff were removed, which were there in the FIR on September 16. The family registered an FIR against the principal, warden, coach lifeguard, teacher and other workers under IPC section 304A (death due to negligence) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
Om Budholiya’s body was found floating in the swimming pool in the school premises. The post mortem report confirmed death by drowning. Multiple allegations were also made against the school administration in this matter after which divisional commissioner Roshan Jacob had ordered a magisterial inquiry.
