Its frilled website calls Taurian World School the No. 1 CBSE boarding school of Jharkhand while the chairman's message proudly roots the Taurian initiative in "the fertile grounds of knowledge", but the top-notch institution in Ranchi made one cardinal mistake that has now maligned its name and must serve as a lesson for others.

Taurian hired sacked schoolteacher of Sapphire International Arif Ali Ansari - father of the boy who killed Class VII student Binay Kumar Mahto - without doing a proper background check despite the schools being only 5km apart. While the Sapphire campus sprawls on 47 acres in Hardag, 25km from capital Ranchi, Taurian boasts 42 acresin Hazam, some 20km from the city.

Arif, who taught mathematics, lost his job at Sapphire in September last year following complaints of question leak on Facebook and inappropriate messages to a student. Within three months, he found a new job at Taurian.

Schools, as the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights recently underscored, have the moral responsibility of checking past employment records before hiring an employee, particularly a teacher. Did Taurian follow this thumb rule?

"No," admitted principal D.R. Singh. "Arif Ali joined our school on January 4. He said his wife taught at Sapphire and spouses working at the same place could not further their career. We keep all teachers on probation for six months and were in dire need of a math teacher. He qualified for the post and we did not quiz him further because he wasn't a permanent employee yet," Singh said.

Reminded that a teacher of dubious distinction was not just hired, but allowed to live on the campus, Singh said, "We had just given him a room to stay. Besides, during his month-long service, his behaviour was not questionable."

Was Taurian regretting the recruitment now? A big lesson learnt, the principal added.

When similar questions were posed to Dhruba Das, principal of Sapphire International, he said Arif was appointed by his predecessor. "We asked the math teacher to leave in September last year because he was leaking questions on Facebook and was sending inappropriate messages to a student. Since I did not employ him and his wife (Hindi teacher Nazia Hussain), I cannot comment on whether a background check was done on them. But yes, Taurian did not cross-check with us about Arif."

On why Arif was allowed to enter Sapphire campus even after being sacked, Das added, "He was not interacting with students or taking classes. So, we did not stop him from seeing Nazia and their children occasionally."

Currently, both top-notch schools are busy verifying background of all teachers and employees. "We have handed over a bulky register to police with details of teachers and other staff," said Das.

At Taurian, a check has begun too, but is being done by the school management.