GD Goenka student death: Ghaziabad police yet to submit forensic report before inquiry officer

The school authorities had moved Allahabad high court in a bid to quash the FIR.

The magisterial inquiry into the death of a class IV student of GD Goenka school in Indirapuram yet to be concluded as Ghaziabad police officials have failed to submit the report to the inquiry officer.

Arman's parents, Swati and Gulshan Sehgal had met UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

The magisterial inquiry was ordered by the district magistrate after Arman Seghal died after a ‘fall’ at the school premises on August 1. His parents lodged an FIR against the school authorities under IPC sections of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence at the Indirpuram police station.

“The inquiry was initiated on August 4 and yet to be concluded as the forensic report in the case is yet to be submitted to us. We have written two times to the station house officer but there is no response. On Wednesday, I wrote to the senior superintendent of police to submit the report at the earliest so that the inquiry gets concluded,” said Rajesh Kumar Yadav, additional district magistrate (finance and revenue), who is conducting the inquiry.

The forensic team of experts had conducted an on-site inspection of school premises and had submitted the report to Ghaziabad police. Indirapuram SHO SC Dubey confirmed that the report was “received but he has no access to the copy of the document as yet.”

The school authorities had moved Allahabad high court in a bid to quash the FIR. The court had kept any coercive action in abeyance but had sought a report on the investigation from police authorities in its August 11 directions.

During a subsequent hearing, the police failed to file the post-mortem report of Arman before the court.

“Learned AGA has filed counter affidavit from the perusal whereof, we find that copy of post-mortem report has not been filed,” the high court said in its recent September 6 order.

During the hearing, the court gave three weeks to police to file a supplementary affidavit and also to attach a copy of the post-mortem report, which is a basic document in police investigation related to a death case.

“I will check with the SHO why the forensic report has not been furnished before the inquiry officer,” said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).

Arman died on the second floor of his school premises. The corridor had no CCTV coverage, despite other areas kept under CCTV surveillance.

His parents had alleged laxity on the part of police. They had also met CM Yogi Adityanath when he arrived at Ghaziabad on August 31. The school maintained that it was just an accident.