SC Agrees To Hear Plea For CBI Probe In Ghaziabad School Boy's Death

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on Monday the plea of a man, whose 9-year-old son died last month allegedly under mysterious circumstances in a private school in Ghaziabad, seeking a CBI probe in the case.

The plea has been filed amid an ongoing uproar over the death of a 7-year-old boy in the toilet of Ryan International School in Gurgaon who was found with his throat slit on September 8.

The matter relating to the death of class IV student Arman Sehgal at G D Goenka Public School at Indirapuram in Ghaziabad district on August 1 was today mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

The bench, also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, said the plea would be heard on September 18.

Gulshan Sehgal, father of the victim, has claimed in his plea that a probe by CBI or a special investigation team was required for a "thorough and fair investigation" as the school management has already "destroyed" evidence in the case.

The plea said some members of the school management, including the chairman, director and principal, have moved the Allahabad High Court seeking quashing of the FIR and the court had granted them interim protection from arrest and directed that no coercive action should be taken against them.

It has also sought a stay against the interim orders of the high court issued on August 11 and September 6.

"The high court failed to appreciate the fact that the police officials reached the scene of crime almost four hours late and by that time the school authorities had destroyed and tampered with crucial evidence," the petition, filed through advocate Gurmeet Singh, said.

It also alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Police had not probed the case properly due to which the school authorities had tampered with the scene of crime and removed all evidence.

"The high court failed to appreciate the fact that the expert opinion suggests that the cause of death cannot be from a fall on the corridor and to the contrary, the expert opinion suggests that the injuries caused should be from a fall of atleast 20 feet height," the plea said.

It also alleged that CCTV footage of the school was not kept according to the rules and certain videos were deleted from the record.

The petitioner said even after 45 days of the incident, he does not know the reason and circumstances under which his son died.

He said on August 1, they had received a call from the school that his son had fallen in the corridor and was being taken to a hospital. But when he reached the hospital, they were told that the boy was declared 'brought dead'.

"The respondents deliberately and with criminal intent of mind, wiped away and caused to disappear all evidence pertaining to the occurrence. In this connection, it is submitted that the CCTV cameras were removed and so was the recording of the cameras," the plea alleged.

"The post mortem report of the deceased clearly indicates fracture of the base of skull and fracture of the nasal bone," it said, adding that these injuries cannot be possibly caused by a fall in the corridor.