Ranchi: A Class VII student was found dead, with his face bludgeoned, on the porch of a teachers’ hostel in a reputable school here, less than 30 minutes after CCTV showed him leaving his own hostel nearby in the dead of night.

The boy has been identified as Vinay Kumar Mahto, aged 12. The institution is Sapphire International School in Hardag, 25km from the Jharkhand capital.

The post-mortem report is awaited. But a professor of forensic science at a hospital said indications were that the boy was subjected to “severe torture”. Police would probe whether abuse was involved, sources said.

The 40-acre campus has more than 80 surveillance cameras, 16 security guards and two Great Danes. But why and how the child reached the teachers’ hostel, around 750 metres from the students’ facility, is not known.

Preferred by businessmen and IAS and IPS officers to educate their children, the school charges boarders between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 3.77 lakh a year.

The CCTV footage shows the boy leaving his hostel room barefoot around 1.09am. Around 1.30am, his body was found in a pool of blood on the front porch of the five-storey teachers’ hostel, The Telegraph reported.

Some school officials suggested the boy might have fallen from one of the higher floors but they did not explain how a student as young as 12 could leave his hostel unaccompanied and reach the teachers’ hostel unnoticed.

This is the second untimely death in a reputable school in the country in less than a week. On Saturday, a Class I student was found dead in the reservoir of Ryan International School in south Delhi.

Three teachers and five guards of Sapphire International have been detained for questioning. The school will be shut for the next three days.

Manbahal Mahto, the boy’s father who owns several brick kilns in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, has blamed the school administration for Vinay’s death.

Vinay’s father Manbahal told The Telegraph: “My son was killed and the school management knows who killed him. It is suppressing facts. The school kept saying that he suffered minor injuries and had fever. I noticed a deep wound above the left eye of my son as if an iron rod had been pierced. Someone used rods and boulders to batter him (to death).”

Vinay’s two younger brothers — Vivek (10) and Vipul (6) — are students of the same school.

Ranchi SSP Kuldeep Dwivedi said a forensic team was collecting evidence and the post-mortem report had not been filed. “In such a situation, it is difficult to comment how the boy died. However, preliminary probe, supported by circumstantial evidence, does suggest foul play,” he said.

The professor of forensic science said Vinay had multiple injuries, which were unlikely to have been caused by a fall. “The injuries may have been inflicted within 48 hours. The boy had a deep forehead gash, broken teeth, bleeding liver and fractures. These are indicative of torture,” he said.

The Hardag campus is under the jurisdiction of Tupudana police, with whom an FIR was lodged tonight.

School principal Dhruba Das expressed his inability to explain the circumstances under which Vinay died. “The boy was suffering from fever. It is difficult to say why he came out of his hostel at night and how he suffered injuries. We are shocked. The boy was sober, intelligent, co-operative and cute. He was studying in the school for eight years,” Das said.
Echoing the principal, school co-chairperson Mohita Sahu said: “It is difficult to say whether it is an accident or suicide or something else. It is still a mystery for us.”

Art teacher Durbanand Jana, the first to notice Vinay’s body and alert the management, said he was working late for the annual day. “When I was returning to our hostel around 1.30am from the programme venue 400 metres away, I saw the boy in a pool of blood.”

The unnatural and untimely death triggered a brief blockade on the Ranchi-Khunti highway this afternoon.

Established in 2007 and located along Ranchi-Khunti Road, the CBSE-affiliated Sapphire International School has 405 students on its rolls till Class XII. It has two three-storey hostels, one each for boys and girls. Around 145 students, including 24 girls, stay in the two hostels. Of the total 81 teachers, 40 stay in the teachers’ hostel. The school has indoor and outdoor sports facilities, smart classrooms, a swimming pool and AC buses.