Police on Wednesday morning recovered the body of a Class XII student hanging from the bathroom ceiling of her hostel at a central government-run highschool in Birbhum’s Labhpur.
Abdul Barik, the father of the Class XII student RanijaParvin, 17, lodged a murder complaint against the principal and the hostel warden of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) located at Gopalpur village in Labhpur police station limits.
Ranija’s kin lodged the case after demonstrating for over an hour demanding the arrest of those responsible for her “murder”.
“The principal of the school, Bedanta Kumar Mohanty, informed me over the phone that my daughter was ill and admitted to the Labhpur rural hospital. I rushed to the hospital from Birbhum’s Mayureswar and learnt she is no more. I found injuries on her body and the clothes she was wearing did not belong to her. I think it was a planned murder. I want justice,” said Barik, a resident of Mayureswar, around 25 km away from school.
“We have sent the body fora post-mortem and a probe has begun. We have started a murder case in this connection,” said Birbhum police chief Bhaskar Mukherjee.
Sources said Ranija was admitted to the school in Class V and was a residential student at the JNV. She was to have appeared for the Class XII exam this year
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Labhpur, which was set up in 2006, is part of a series of central schools for talented students predominantly from rural areas in the country. They aim to cater to students who lack access to accelerated learning due to financial, social and rural disadvantages. According to the guidelines of the central government, the district magistrate of Birbhum is the chairman of the school.
After the murder complaint was filed, police began investigations into what happened to the student inside her hostel room.
Police sources said that the school authorities had informed them that they found the girl hanging in the bathroom around 6.35 am.
The police, quoting school authorities, said all other students were busy with the morning parade, but Ranija was allowed to stay inside her room as she had complained of a headache.
School principal Mohanty declined to comment when contacted by this newspaper on Wednesday evening.
