Ghaziabad school death: Chairman, principal charged

GHAZIABAD/ALLAHABAD: The Ghaziabad police has filed chargesheet against the chairman, principal and three others of G D Goenka Public School, Indirapuram in connection with the death of a Class IV student, Armaan Sehgal, on school premises on August 1, 2017. The chargesheet, filed in a local court on February 9, runs into 11 pages. It has listed 21 witnesses including Armaan's parents.

On Friday, the Allahabad high court dismissed a writ petition filed by the principal and the others seeking quashing of the FIR registered against them in the case. The court dismissed the petition when it was brought to its notice that the police have already filed chargesheet against chairman Ankur Malhotra, principal Dr

Kavita Sharma

and three others under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) of IPC.

However, a division bench comprising

Justice

Govind Mathur and Justice AK Gupta said the accused can approach the lower court for relief.

With the dismissal of writ petition, the interim order of the court on August 11, 2017 directing that no coercive step shall be taken against the chairman, principal others also stands vacated.

The five persons who have been named as accused in the chargesheet are chairperson Ankur Malhotra, principal Kavita Sharma and three directors —Smita Malhotra, Deepak Tuteja and Joginder Dua.

“The petition filed on behalf of the school was rendered infructuous as the sections invoked by the police in its chargesheet are bailable offences. Therefore, it was rejected by the court. The IPC sections invoked in the chargesheet attract punishment of a maximum of two years. If police arrest any of the accused, we will get bail from the lower court. Whenever the court summons us, we will appear and seek for regular bail,” counsel for the school, AP Singh, told TOI.

However, family members of Armaan said they would challenge the chargesheet in the trial court as the police had invoked lenient sections.

“All evidence at our disposal point towards various instances of omissions and commissions by the school authorities that led to the death of Armaan. Police have invoked a lenient section of the IPC, that is, one pertaining to causing death due to negligence in the chargesheet. We will contest this in the trial court and plead that the accused be charged for culpable homicide under Section 304 of IPC which had originally been invoked against them in the FIR registered in Indirapuram police station,” Armaan's mother, Swati Sehgal, said.

“We are awaiting the certified copy of the order issued by Allahabad high court on Friday before we can proceed further,” SSP

Hari Narayan Singh

said.

School chairperson Ankur Malhotra was not available for comments despite repeated attempts to contact him.