Police at the school in Lucknow Thursday. (Express Photo: Vishal Srivastav)
THE 12-YEAR-OLD girl, a Class VII student, accused of attacking a Class I student at a Lucknow school, was on Thursday sent to a juvenile home even as she denied attacking six-year-old Hritik Sharma with a kitchen knife at the school washroom on Tuesday.
School principal Rachit Manas was arrested for allegedly hiding evidence and informing the police about the incident a day later on Wednesday. However, later in the day, Chief Judicial Magistrate (Custom) Chhavi Asthana granted him bail on furnishing two sureties of Rs 20,000 each and a personal bond of the same amount.
While police said Hritik identified the girl when he was shown photographs of students from classes VI and VII, the suspect’s parents Thursday alleged that their daughter was being framed.
The girl’s father said: “Why did the school cut my daughter’s hair? This is the forensic team’s work. They even stripped my child and asked her to pick up some suspicious things… What does it mean? I believe that the school administration is not paying attention to us and we are being framed.”
Some parents on Thursday alleged that soon after Hritik was found injured, the teachers made all students strip while searching for the knife.
Police, who suspect the girl attacked the student in the hope that the school would be shut, recovered a scarf, a kitchen knife and a small piece of cloth — allegedly stuffed into Hritik’s mouth — from the school washroom on Thursday. “Forensic experts have found the hair of a girl on the boy’s uniform… DNA profiling of the hair will further confirm the identity of the girl,” said Aliganj police Station Officer Brijesh Singh.
SP (Trans-Gomti) Harendra Singh said: “Last year, the parents of the girl had lodged two missing complaints at Aliganj police station. The first was lodged on September 29 last year… the police went on to trace her from Lucknow’s Charbagh area. On November 11, the family lodged another missing complaint, alleging that she had left home with Rs 1 lakh in cash and some jewellery. She was later found in Shahjahanpur district.”
“On Wednesday, the school administration told us that last year, the girl had cut her wrist with a shaving razor in the school and claimed that she had been attacked,” he added.
“After the boy identified her once he saw her photograph Wednesday, she appeared before the Juvenile Justice Board and was sent to a juvenile home,” said SP (Trans-Gomti). When asked about the father’s allegations, he said: “He did not tell anything to us.”
The station officer said school principal Rachit Manas was arrested under sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform) of the IPC as he did not inform the police on time, leading to destruction of evidence.
Police said while CCTV footage was available, no camera was facing the washroom entrance at the time of the incident.
“The boy said he was on his way to the school assembly when a girl student told him that a teacher was calling him and asked him to come with her. She took him to the washroom and gagged him with her hand. She then attacked him with a knife in the stomach and forehead and left, closing the washroom door from outside. The boy said she had short hair and her school ID card mentioned Class VI or VII,” Aliganj police Senior Sub-Inspector Nand Kishore had said on Wednesday.
Lucknow District Inspector of Schools Mukesh Kumar Singh had issued a notice to the school seeking clarification why legal action should not be initiated against it. During his visit on Thursday, Kumar said he has ordered a probe to find out if the school was following all norms.