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Sapphire School student death: Father challenges CBI ‘accident’ verdict, files petition
Manbahal Mahto protests CBI's closure report on his son's 2016 school death, deeming it an accident, demanding a reinvestigation for justice.
Manbahal Mahto, father of the 13-year-old boy who died at a school in 2016, has filed a formal protest petition in a special CBI court to challenge the agency’s final closure report. The investigative agency recently concluded that the teenager’s controversial 2016 death at Sapphire International School in Ranchi was a tragic accident rather than a criminal conspiracy.
This finding directly contradicts police’s long-standing stance that the boy was murdered. Following preliminary arguments on Thursday and Friday, the matter is expected to be heard in the special court on Thursday afternoon.
The Class 7 student was found with severe injuries outside a teacher’s quarter on the campus. The incident occurred in the intervening night of February 4 and February 5 in 2016.
The case was initially handled by local police, which argued that the boy was murdered by a teacher’s minor son over an alleged crush or ‘love affair’ of the boy with the teacher’s minor daughter.
The police implicated and arrested the entire family of four on February 10, 2016, including Nazia Hussain (Hindi teacher), her husband Arif Ali Ansari, the juvenile son and daughter. The juveniles were acquitted and the couple was released on bail.
Unhappy with the police findings and citing numerous loopholes, Manbahal Mahto had spent years petitioning higher authorities for a deeper investigation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) formally registered an FIR on July 20, 2022 following the Jharkhand HC order of July 7, 2022.The CBI’s recent final report ruled out any foul play, murder, or criminal conspiracy, categorising the death as an accident.
Refusing to accept this conclusion, Mahto’s protest petition demands that the court reject the closure report and order a comprehensive reinvestigation into what the family firmly believes was a homicide.
Manbahal Mahto emphasised that challenging the agency’s report was the need of the hour to prevent the truth from being buried. “Seeking a re-investigation was the need of the hour. We cannot accept an ‘accident’ conclusion when my son was brutally taken away from us. Filing this protest petition is an essential step to ensure that the massive loopholes in the investigation are addressed, the CBI’s closure report is rejected, and our decade-long fight for the truth brings actual justice for my departed son,” he said.
The upcoming court hearing next Thursday will determine the next legal steps for the family’s decade-long pursuit of justice.
HC advocate Khushboo Kataruka is representing Manbahal Mahto in this case. The protest petition is being heard in the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM)-cum-special judicial magistrate (CBI), presided over by Judge Rupam Smriti Topno.
