VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, July 7: After a prolonged six years of legal battle, Manbahal Mahto has finally secured a CBI inquiry order of the murder case of his son Binay Mahto who was brutally murdered on the campus of his school Sapphire International in February 2016.
The CBI will have to unfold many riddles of the murder of this 12-year-old boy including whether it was just a bizarre surveillance slip or a conspiracy that the crime spot had no CCTV surveillance while the rest of the school had.
Binay Mahto was found in the pool of blood at the entrance of the teachers’ hostel. When police searched for any CCTV it found an android phone mounted on the ceiling of the corridor of the first floor of the teachers’ hostel which was precisely the crime spot. A cheaper android phone with poor video recording quality placed here as a substitute for CCTV caused suspicions.
This elite school had over 80 high-quality CCTVs placed at strategic locations to cover the sprawling premise. But the teachers’ hostel was the only place where an android phone was found in place of the CCTV. The school administration could not explain its choice of placing a poor android phone instead of the CCTV. The school administration had said that since teachers’ hostel was a restricted area as nobody (except teachers) went there, hence, they thought an android phone would be sufficient.
Police seized that phone hoping to get some clues. But the video was a grainy, blank screen. No amount of technical support could improve quality. It had some strange noises but it was difficult to establish.
A CCTV camera inside the boys’ hostel had recorded a 30-second video. Barefoot Binay was seen walking out at 1.09 am from his hostel and at 1.30 am he was found dead. Had there been CCTV at the teachers’ hostel, it could have shed light on the crucial and blind 21 minutes. This left a big question whether it was an inadvertent act or it was a sheer coincidence that an Android phone instead of a CCTV camera was installed above the porch.
Khushbu Kataruka who is among the lawyers who fought for justice for Binay Mahto through PIL said that there were several grey areas in the investigation and the police theory that convinced the court for a CBI inquiry.
