The state government has filed an appeal against an order of the Juvenile Justice Board by which two underage accused in the 2016 murder of schoolboy Binay Kumar Mahto were acquitted on July 6, 2018, due to lack of evidence.
A vernacular daily published from the city reported this on Friday saying the court had also issued notices to the juvenile duo, students of the same residential Sapphire International School where Binay studied and where he was found lying in a pool of blood around 1.30am on February 5, 2016.
Public prosecutor Anil Kumar Singh expressed his ignorance about this development when contacted on Friday. The report gives the details of the circumstances under which the appeal was filed.
“The juveniles were students of Binay’s school and also children of a Hindi teacher of the school, Nazia Hussain, also an accused in the case. Their hearing was done under the Juvenile Justice Board and the minors were acquitted after the prosecution failed to produce the forensic lab reports related to important evidence of the murder collected from the school premises,” the report reads.
Binay’s father, businessman Manbahal Mahto, told The Telegraph that he knew that the state had filed appeal in the court of district judge Navneet Kumar, but he said he was “neither happy nor unhappy” with the development as for almost four years now, he and his family were waiting to know who murdered his 12-year-old son.
“We are still waiting. All those the police had arrested have either been acquitted or granted bail. According to the trial court there are 10 more new accused in the case. So I am just thoroughly confused and waiting to see the real culprit or culprits,” the bereaved father said.
The Binay murder case shocked the state in 2016 but no major headway could be made so far. Police after probe had arrested teacher Nazia, her husband Arif, and their two children in this connection. But Nazia and Arif were released on bail and their children acquitted due to lack of evidence. A PIL demanding CBI probe into the murder is still pending in Jharkhand High Court.
