Class 5 student found hanging in Bihar’s Katihar school hostel, family alleges murder

Bihar police on Friday said a 13-year-old student of a private school in Katihar was allegedly found hanging near the bathroom of the school’s hostel. The deceased student’s family alleged murder, while the school administration rejected the claim and declared it as a suicide case, reported Hindustan Times.

Katihar police said the incident took place in a private school hostel under Mansahi police station area. The deceased was a student of Class 5 and had been living in the hostel for the past three years.

Mansahi police station SHO Alok Roy told the English daily, “Prima facie, it appears to be a case of suicide, but police will wait for the postmortem report.”

The deceased boy, identified as Singheshwar Mandal, was a resident of Dilarpur village under Manihari police station. His father works in a private company in Tamil Nadu.

A close relative of the deceased boy accused the school and hostel administration of hiding the facts and committing the crime.

“They beat him to death and later hanged him to divert the case,” the close relative of the deceased boy alleged.

The relative accused the hostel administration of humiliating the deceased boy on false charges of stealing ₹200. Adding that the family, however, had paid the amount to the school administration and had requested not to humiliate the boy for the same.

Demanding stringent action against the hostel and school administration, the boy’s relative said, “Even if the boy took the decision of eliminating himself, it was due to humiliating treatment given to him on the suspicion of money theft.”

Meanwhile, the postmortem was conducted, and the police handed over the boy’s body to the family. The reports said that family members have not come to lodge an FIR so far.