A special CBI court in Ranchi heard a protest petition from the father of Vinay Mahto, a school student who was murdered nearly a decade ago. The petition challenges the closure report filed by the agency in this high-profile case. The court conducted partial arguments during the hearing and scheduled further proceedings for next week.
Advocate Khushboo Kataruka, representing the petitioner, raised concerns about the CBI’s closure report and contested its conclusions. The tragic incident involving Vinay Mahto, a 12-year-old student of Sapphire International School in Ranchi, occurred on the night of February 4-5, 2016, inside the school hostel premises. His body, covered in blood, was discovered the following morning near the teachers’ staff quarters on the campus along Ranchi-Khunti Road.
The immediate response by Ranchi police labeled the incident as an ‘honour killing’. According to the police’s theory, Vinay had shown interest in the daughter of a Hindi teacher at the school, Naseeya Hussain. In a fit of rage, the teacher’s son, a Class 11 student, allegedly assaulted Vinay with lethal intent and then threw him from the first floor. Subsequently, the police arrested four individuals in connection with the case, including the teacher, her husband, and their two minor children, who were remanded to custody.
