PATNA: A teacher with the help of his father faked his death and managed to evade his arrest for nearly four years after raping his minor student in Bihar's Bhagalpur district. The teacher enacted the 'death drama' by lying on a pyre which was purportedly lit by his father and was also photographed. As the burial shroud was wrapped around his ‘body’, the teacher also ensured that his father ‘acted as per his script’.
Later, his father managed to get the death certificate of his ‘living’ son from the Panchayat secretary with the money receipt issued for the purchase of wood for cremating the body. After the father got the death certificate from the local authorities, he deposited the death certificate of his ‘living’ son and a photograph of the funeral in the court, leading to the closure of the case itself as the rape accused was ‘no more’.
The teacher, Neeraj Modi surrendered before the special POCSO court in Bhagalpur on Monday after his ‘death’ was found fake. The court has remanded him to 14 days of judicial custody in Bhagalpur central jail. An FIR was registered against the teacher, a resident of Ishipur Barahat police station on October 14, 2018, for raping his minor student. But the teacher came up with the idea of faking his death to evade the arrest.
The father of the accused Rajaram Modi is also cooling his heels in jail. The conspiracy behind the teacher's fake death was exposed when the rape survivor's mother came to know that the accused teacher was alive through her acquaintances.
Later she approached the block development officer (BDO) concerned informing them that Neeraj Modi's death certificate had been wrongly issued. The BDO constituted a team to conduct a probe, which proved that the death certificate had been issued wrongly.
Subsequently, an FIR was lodged against the father of the accused on the directive of BDO. The registrar of birth and death Dharmendra Kumar cancelled the death certificate on the recommendation of BDO. On May 21, FIR was lodged against the father Jairam Modi. Later he was arrested and produced before the court, which sent him to judicial custody.
Special POCSO court judge Lavkush Kumar summoned the station house officer of Pirpaithi police station in the court and ordered to re-open the case. A contempt notice was issued against the SHO for his failure to give a satisfactory answer. Arti Devi and Panch Tara Devi, ward councillor and ward member, respectively, said that the death certificate of Neeraj Modi was found to be fake in the course of the investigation.