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Bihar boy found hanging in Darjeeling school, police begin probe
The victim was a resident of Patna’s Vivekananda Colony who had joined the school on July 16 and his parents left for Patna the next day leaving him behind in the school hostel.
Police in West Bengal’s Darjeeling have started a probe into the death of an 11-year-old student from Patna in Bihar, who was found hanging in a hostel room of a reputed school in the hill town days after he took admission.
Darjeeling superintendent of police Akhilesh Chaturvedi said a case of unnatural death has been registered.
“However, after the boy’s father lodged a formal complaint, we have lodged a murder case and begun a probe,” he said.
Soumyajit Roy, inspector-in-charge of Darjeeling, said the police have also requested for a magisterial inquiry into the death of Aditya Raj.
Aditya’s body was found hanging from the ceiling of his hostel room in Good Start Montessori of Darjeeling’s Chandmari on the evening of July 20. He was rushed to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Aditya, a resident of Patna’s Vivekananda Colony, joined the school on July 16 and his parents left for Patna the next day leaving him behind in the school hostel.
Deepak Kumar, a Patna-based businessman, said his son was quite happy when they left for Patna after admitting him to the school.
“My son was admitted to the school on July 16 in Class 6, three months after the new academic session started. He was happy and excited when we left him behind in Darjeeling. Aditya was especially happy to join his three friends from Patna who had taken admission to Good Start Montessori three months back,” Kumar said.
Kumar said he got a call from the school at 8pm on Friday saying that Aditya had tried to commit suicide by hanging himself and that he had been admitted to a hospital in Darjeeling.
“When we reached Darjeeling from Patna on Saturday, we were informed that Aditya had died on Friday itself,” he said.
Kumar, who runs a bulb manufacturing unit in Patna, said it could not be a case of suicide.
“I do not know if school authorities and teachers are involved,” he said at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri, where the body was sent from Darjeeling for a postmortem examination.
Kumar said that he sent his son to Darjeeling for a better education and to improve his English.
“We had never imagined that our world would collapse in just four days,” he added.
Kanhaiyalal Shaw, a relative of the family, said the school authorities informed them that Aditya had tried to commit suicide by hanging himself by a towel from the hostel ceiling.
“But their statement is doubtful. The height of the ceiling does not justify the suicide logic,” he added.
Some teachers in the school, who did not wish to be named, said Aditya and four other students from Bihar used to stay in the same room in the school hostel.
The school’s principal Mamata Tamang could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
