Twelve-year-old Biswas Kumar Sao — Honey for his doting parents — died an untimely death on Tuesday because his alma mater, De Nobili School-Mugma, and Dhanbad’s law enforcers chose to disregard student safety guidelines made mandatory by none other than the Supreme Court.

The Class V boy was flung out of a grille-less window of a hired bus — ferrying him home to Mugma Bazar from campus — when the vehicle suddenly hit brakes on an under-construction bridge in Khudia, 30km from town. Honey was declared brought dead in hospital.

A day after the tragedy, the school management, CSR mentor Eastern Coalfields Limited and district transport department engaged in a vigorous blame game.

In a face-saver for the administration, district education officer Dharmadeo Rai ordered a probe, while angry parents have decided to terminate the services of the guilty private operator.

“An officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of education, Mithilesh Kumar Pandey, will visit De Nobili for inquiry. Strict action will be taken against those responsible for the accident. The school cannot shrug off responsibility saying the bus was hired,” Rai said.

However, agonised guardians refused to trust the authorities with the safety of their children any longer and decided to play watchdog. On Wednesday, a six-member committee (see box), headed by Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee, was floated with the primary objective of inspecting buses ferrying schoolchildren, identifying rogue ones and barring them from duty.

De Nobili principal K.A. Joseph termed Tuesday’s incident unfortunate. “We have suspended classes today to mourn the tragic death of our student,” he said.

But, on why the school authorities had never bothered to check on student transport, Joseph claimed that majority of buses ferrying students were run by ECL under its corporate social responsibility programme and hence, were beyond their jurisdiction.

Incidentally, the bus that led to Honey’s death was hired from a private contractor named Jagat Mahto and pressed into service this July 1. Sources said the coal company had refused to ferry children of non-ECL employees — Honey’s father Rajesh Sao is a grocer in Mugma — and had reached a negotiation with disgruntled parents that it would pay for the services of hired vehicles.

District transport officer Ravi Raj Sharma revealed that before the summer vacation, nine buses of the Mugma cradle had been seized for flouting Supreme Court guidelines. “The crackdown was conducted on both ECL and private buses. The vehicles were released only after the school principal promised to plug safety holes within two days,” he said.

General manager of ECL (Mugma) Pawan Kumar Singh claimed that seven of their buses ferrying schoolchildren complied with court guidelines ever since the drive. “The ill-fated bus did not belong to ECL Mugma. All our buses have window grilles,” he said.

The Telegraph, however, spotted an ECL bus near the campus that blatantly mocked every safety norm. Officials in Mugma claimed it did not belong to them, but another ECL unit in Chinakuri in Asansol.

Members of Yuva Chhatra Jagran Manch burnt effigies of the district transport officer, holding him responsible for lax action.

Honey’s parents were too traumatised to speak to the media.