Student's Murder: Principal booked for callous approach, accused teen sent to remand home

NEW DELHI: The principal of an Ahmedabad-based private school, where a Class 10 student was stabbed to death allegedly by a fellow pupil, has been booked for not informing police or education authorities about the incident, said an official of crime branch on Friday. In a related development, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) has sent the accused teen, also a Class 10 student, to an observation home upon his production by the crime branch, which is investigating the case, said Assistant Commissioner of Police (crime branch) Bharat Patel.

The stabbing incident occurred over some issue between the two students on August 19 near the main gate of the Seventh Day Adventist School located in the Khokhra area. The victim, who was injured in the incident, died during treatment later that night. School principal G Emmanuel has now been booked for not informing authorities concerned on time about the fatal incident. A preliminary probe revealed that after getting stabbed by the accused outside the school, the victim student sat near the gate No.3 of the institute and tried to stop his bleeding by his hand, said Patel while talking to reporters.

"The victim sustained a deep wound on his stomach. After seeing him bleeding, a security guard alerted the school management , following which he was first taken to LG Hospital and then to SVP Hospital, where he eventually died. The Khokhra police learnt about the stabbing from a policeman deployed at the hospital," said Patel. The ACP noted that nearly 45 minutes had passed from the moment the security guard noticed the bleeding student to police receiving information about the incident from the hospital.

Delay in reporting sparks FIR

"It shows that for 40 to 45 minutes, school principal G Emmanuel did not inform local police or the District Education Officer about the incident. Thus, for such callous approach, we have lodged an FIR against Emmanuel under sections 211 and 239 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)," informed Patel. Section 211 deals with "offence of intentionally failing to provide legally required notice or information to a public servant", while 239 deals with the "intentional omission to give information about an offense by a person legally bound to inform".

According to Patel, both victim and the accused were Class 10 students but studied in different divisions. After the alleged stabbing, the accused went home and then to his tuition class. "As of now, we only know they had a quarrel over some issue, but no one had imagined that it would become this serious. We have taken over the probe and started questioning relevant persons," the officer added.