The deceased child, Lavanya, had consumed pesticide in her school hostel. The judicial magistrate had recorded her dying declaration.
In her police statement on January 16 as well as in her statement before the judicial magistrate, the child directly and in unambiguous terms accused the hostel warden of burdening her with non-academic chores, as a result of which she consumed the pesticide.
Based on her statements, the hostel warden was booked for offences under Sections 305 (abetment of suicide of child or insane person), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) and 82(1) [corporal punishment in a child-care institution] of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
Later, a private video implicating the school’s correspondent began circulating on social media. When the same was brought to the notice of the Superintendent of Police (SP), she told a reporter that in the preliminary enquiry, the religious conversion angle was not made out.
This led to the father of the deceased child losing faith in the investigation and moving the High Court.
On January 31, the High Court had noted in its order that the petitioner was justified in entertaining the impression of bias since by stating that the conversion angle stood ruled out, the SP had brushed aside the petitioner’s complaint made in writing which was backed by the child’s video.
“This Court has a duty to render posthumous justice to the child. The foregoing circumstances cumulatively taken will definitely create an impression that the investigation is not proceeding on the right lines,” the Court had observed.
Noting that there was nothing “inherently improbable” in the allegation that there was an attempt at conversion, the single-judge had noted that the matter called for an investigation into the claim’s veracity, not an outright rejection.
Source: Barandbench
