LUCKNOW: A Class 10 student died under mysterious circumstances after she allegedly fell from the terrace of the school in Ayodhya on Friday.
The UP Police have registered a case against three persons including the school manager Brijesh Yadav, principal Rashmi Bhatia, and PT teacher Abhishek Kannojia, invoking sections pertaining to gang rape, destruction of evidence, murder and also under the POCSO Act on the basis of the complaint lodged by victim’s father on Saturday.
The police have already arrested the PT teacher and are investigating him. The body of the deceased was sent for autopsy examination which is being conducted by a panel of three doctors and the entire procedure is being videographed.
The incident happened at the Sunbeam School on Ayodhya-Rae Bareilly Road in the Cantt area of the temple town at around 8.45 am on Friday.
According to the parents, the victim was called to school by the principal regarding an article for the school magazine even as the school was shut for summer vacations on Friday morning.
The victim, who used to live in the Usru locality left for school at 8:30 am.
At around 10 am, the victim’s father Sanjeev Srivastava, an employee of a petroleum company, got a call from school authorities informing him that his daughter Ananya had fallen from a swing and had sustained serious injuries.
Srivastava rushed to the hospital where his daughter Ananya was taken by the school authorities.
After battling for her life the whole day, she succumbed to her injuries on Friday at 5 pm.
Later the family approached the police authorities suspecting foul play with the dubious role of school authorities including the manager, principal and PT teacher.
The parents alleged that the body of their daughter bore several injury marks on her hands, feet and hips. They claimed that her face was swollen and her eyes were injured which could be a result of an assault.
The police scanned CCTV footage and found that the girl fell from the third floor.
Contradicting the school authorities' claim, the victim’s father refused to accept that his daughter died after falling off a swing as it was only one-and-a-half feet high.
According to police sources, the principal tried to mislead the family of the deceased by claiming that the death was due to falling from the swing.
They added that the traces of blood were also removed from the place where the girl had allegedly fallen.
Ananya’s mother Ruchi Srivastava a government council school teacher in Siddharthnagar was visiting her parents in Indore along with her younger daughter.
The school principal Rashmi Bhatia remained incommunicado. CO City Shailendra Singh said that as per the CCTV footage, Ananya died after falling from the third floor of the school. Moreover, the spectacles and mobile of the deceased found on the spot were not broken.