Ranchi, Feb. 10: A 12-year-old student of a reputable school near Ranchi was battered to death for his boyhood crush on a junior by the girl's elder brother whose mother teaches in the same institution, police said today.
The police also announced the arrests of the girl, her brother and their parents for various alleged roles related to the murder of Binay Kumar Mahto, a Class VII student of Sapphire International School on the outskirts of the Jharkhand capital, on Friday.
The 16-year-old brother and Class XI student at the same school invited Binay to a soya-chilli treat at the teachers' quarters and then bludgeoned him with knuckledusters till he lost consciousness, the police said.
The alleged assailant's mother, Hindi teacher Nazia Hussain, helped her son throw the 12-year-old off the first-floor balcony, the police added.
Nazia's daughter, a Class VI student, may have helped tamper with evidence while her father Arif Ali Ansari, who teaches mathematics at another school nearby, masterminded over phone the "clean-up" that followed, according to the investigators.
SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi said a smartphone, used for stopgap vigil at the teachers' hostel instead of a CCTV camera, and police Labrador Mahanta helped in the breakthrough that was announced five days after the murder. The girl confirmed most of the suspicions and theories during a 30-minute quizzing late yesterday, the police said.
The tracker dog had two days ago led homicide and forensic analysts from the boys' hostel, where Binay lived, to the first-floor quarters of another teacher whose next-door neighbours are Nazia and her children.
The phone's low-resolution camera may have failed to offer telling visuals but the voice recorder caught sounds of the frenetic activity to cover up the crime, the police said.
Binay's father Manbahal Mahto, however, contested the police version on the murder motive. "I am not convinced. It is an attempt to defame my dead child. We want a CBI inquiry. Today, MP Ram Tahal Choudhary met us; I have asked him to talk to the chief minister," the businessman said.
Ranchi police chief Dwivedi told reporters in the afternoon that Nazia and her family were opposed to Binay seeing the girl. "Nazia's son trapped Binay by inviting him to a late-night dinner with soya chilli on the menu. He promised Binay that his sister would be present."
The date was fixed on the school's basketball grounds around 4.30pm on February 4. Nine hours later, Binay - the eldest son of the businessman - was found battered and almost lifeless on the front porch of the teachers' hostel on the Hardag school campus, 25km from Ranchi. He died while being taken to hospital.
SSP Dwivedi said when Binay reached Nazia's quarters between 1am and 1.30am on February 5, her son ushered him in. There was no sign of dinner though. "The boy asked Binay to stop seeing his sister. When the 12-year-old refused, he was punched in the face and abdomen with pointed metal knucks. Binay's head was banged against the wall till he collapsed, bleeding," the officer said.
The commotion woke up Nazia and her daughter, who were sleeping in another room and had no inkling of the invitation to Binay.
"But when Nazia found out what had happened, she helped her son throw the boy off the first-floor balcony. She then called up her husband on the Taurian World School campus in Tupudana (5km away), who advised the clean-up. Blood was mopped from the floor, the wall and the balcony," the SSP said.
"Sounds like quick footsteps, opening of a grille door and mopping and scrubbing were recorded on the phone. There was also a loud thud. A forensic probe later found bloodstains at Nazia's quarters," the officer said.
All four have been charged under Sections 302 (murder), 34 (common intention) and 201 (tampering with evidence) of the IPC. "The boy and girl will be prosecuted under the Juvenile Justice Act," Dwivedi said.
School sources said Arif, originally from Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, earlier taught at Sapphire, but was sacked in September last year for sending inappropriate messages to a student.
