Govt girls’ boarding school warden’s suicide turns out to be murder in Bihar

The police had submitted its closure report citing it a case suicide, but the Patna HC ordered a IG-headed probe that has found that Rinku Devi was murdered by a co-villager and a school guard because of payment of ₹5 lakh

An alleged suicide of Rinku Devi, a warden of government residential school for girls -- Kasturba Gandhi Balika Avasiya Vidyalaya -- in Begusarai has turned out to be a murder following investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and two accused have also been arrested.

Victim Rinku Devi (File photo)

Of the arrested accused, Kaushal Kumar is a co-villager of the victim, and Ajit Kumar Bablu is the caretaker (guard) of the school.

Rinku Devi’s body was found hanging in the school premises on April 4, 2021. The case was closed by the state police as “suicide” but the Patna high court quashed the closure report on April 11 this year and ordered an IG-headed probe into the case after victim’s daughter Tejaswini Kumari sought re-investigation.

The SIT, headed by Inspector General (IG) Vikas Vaibhav, started its probe on June 17. According to officers aware of the investigation, the team found a breakthrough when the forensic science laboratory (FSL) cited asphyxia caused by strangulation as the reason for death. The SIT found that the accused had hanged the body after murder so that it looked like suicide.

The IG, while sharing the information about the investigation, said that during its re-investigation, the SIT requestioned the FSL team and the medical board members who conducted the autopsy of Devi and her hanging was proven by forensic and postmortem details. “Some independent witnesses provided us with photographs that clearly show a noose around the neck and the rope looped from a ceiling fan and the deceased body was covered with dust. There is a bleeding wound from the nose, which proves the murder,” said the IG.

According to SIT findings, the reason behind Devi’s murder by the accused duo was ₹15 lakh that Devi had given to one accused Kaushal Kumar, who is from Devi’s village. Devi’s daughter Tejaswini said that her mother gave this money so that Kumar could purchase a plot of land for her. But when he couldn’t, she demanded her money. But Kumar didn’t intend to pay back and roped in the caretaker of the school, Kaushal Kumar, to kill Devi.

The SIT findings have raised questions about the police investigation conducted by the Investigation Officer (IO) Samrendra Kumar who, according to the SIT team, shut down the investigation despite the medical report stating that “murder by strangulation cannot be ruled out.”

Moreover, he didn’t write the FSL report findings in the case diary, an officer said.

Giving details of her mother’s death on April 4, 2021, Tejaswini recalls that she had told her family that she would return from the school by evening but a call was made to the family at 2pm and when they arrived at the school, they found her dead body lying on the floor. Later, she was shown pictures of her deceased mother by the police officials and local people who had gathered there, in which her mother was seen to be in a sitting position, with a noose around the neck and the rope looped from a ceiling fan and her body was covered with dirt and dust.

The family cremated the body the next day, but when they approached the police station at Birpur and tried to get an FIR registered against two suspects -- Kaushal Kumar and Rohit Kumar -- the SHO refused to lodge an FIR against the above mentioned suspects stating that Tejaswini was not present at the time of the incident and insisted that the FIR will get registered only if she gives an application in accordance with what the SHO directs and only thereafter, the police FIR came to be lodged based on the new complaint which was drafted as per the direction of the SHO and prepared by the scribe (Katib) namely, Prabhakar Kumar and was later signed by the complainant.

The police acted based on this FIR and filed the cosure report declaring Devi’s death as suicide.