Inquiry officer inspects Ghaziabad GD Goenka School to probe student death

The magisterial probe will get over by August 22. Arman’s parents are also expected to get their statements recorded before the inquiry officer on Saturday.

The magisterial inquiry officer probing the ‘unexplained’ death of class IV student Arman Sehgal on August 1 inspected GD Goenka School in Indirapuram on Friday morning.

The magisterial inquiry officer probing the ‘unexplained’ death of class IV student Arman Sehgal on August 1 inspected GD Goenka School in Indirapuram on Friday morning.

This was the first inspection by the officer ever since the incident after which the school was shut for nearly a week. The officer spent nearly two hours at the school where Arman died.

On August 1, Arman was declared brought dead at Shanti Gopal Hospital, minutes after an alleged fall on the second floor corridor of his school.

Later, Arman’s parents lodged an FIR against school officials for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence. They said the spot was cleaned in haste and alleged negligence by school officials.

The school maintains it was just an incident and denied any foul play.

“The circle officer and station house officer from Indirapuram were also present. They had taken the DVR recordings of CCTVs at the school. I asked for the CCTV recording at the time when Arman was moving to his class upstairs and the time when he sustained injuries and was taken by a teacher to the ground floor. The police could not provide the footage. I asked them to get the recordings at the earliest. This will be part of the inquiry process,” said Rajesh Kumar Yadav, additional district magistrate (finance & revenue), who is also the inquiry officer.

Yadav met the school staff and recorded the statements of 13 persons. Eight persons, including the school principal, have already appeared before the officer and recorded their statements.

“We have come to know that the flow meter of the oxygen cylinder was not functioning properly. The additional district magistrate (city) had found the issue soon after the incident. Her report will be included in the inquiry. Apart from this, the staff told us that Arman was showing signs of breathlessness soon after the incident. In order to find out if he was given some treatment at medical room or not, we recorded the statements of the staff nurse of the school,” he said.

The magisterial probe will get over by August 22. Arman’s parents are also expected to get their statements recorded before the inquiry officer on Saturday.

Arman’s parents alleged laxity on the part of police and had met the senior superintendent of police twice to put across their points.

A couple of days ago, SSP HN Singh had sent yet another forensic team to the school premises. The first team was sent by district police officials on August 3, two days after the incident.

“We have requested Lucknow officials and they sent a forensic team to investigate the incident site. Their findings will arrive and will be part of the police report, which will be submitted before the high court,” SSP Singh said.