The upscale GD Goenka school in Indirapuram located in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district has been closed for about a week now. The death of a class 4 student last week is probably the reason. Apart from a few security guards who are manning the entrance gate, no staff member has reported to work. A few policemen have also been stationed outside the entry gate.
The security guards say they are clueless about when will the school reopen. “We don’t know anything and have no authority about anything happening inside. We are here till we get our salaries,” one of them said.
No clarity regarding death
Few parents of the students who are studying in the same school have gathered to demand justice for Armaan Sehgal, a class 4 student who died last week after a fall inside the school campus.
On August 1, the ten-year-old Armaan had a fall inside the school campus. He was rushed to the nearby Shanti Gopal Hospital where he was declared ‘brought dead’. The post mortem report said that the boy died due to head injuries but family members have alleged that there is no clarity regarding his death.
It was earlier alleged that the school died after slipping on a wet floor, a claim which the school authorities denied. An FIR has been filed against the school authorities for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and destruction of evidence.
No arrests so far
Since the incident, the school has shut down. The school management as well as the principal have gone incommunicado. The school’s website also has been taken down. But no arrests have been made so far.
“If this can happen to Armaan, it can also happen to our children. Why is the school management not responding? Why are they hiding?” said one of the parents who wished to remain unnamed.
Another parent said that matter was handled with utmost “insensitivity”. “Let the school remain closed. It doesn’t matter even if it hampers our kids’ education for some days. We want to the authorities to come out clean and justice must be done,” said another parent.
‘Police is giving clean chit to the school authorities’
The aggrieved parents of Armaan have been running from pillar to post to demand justice for the unfortunate death of their son. They say have met everyone ranging from the SSP to the Inspector General and the Director General of Police but haven’t got any support.
“The school authorities have purchased everyone. And police is in the process of giving a clean chit to the school. We now want the ministers to intervene,” Armaan’s mother Swati Sehgal said.
She said that the school authorities have been on the run since day one. “Whether it is the chairman Ankur Malhotra, principal Kavita Sharma or Shilpa Dhingra who had Armaan in her lap, no one has come to us till now. This clearly depicts that they are the culprits,” she said.
No CCTV footage
“No representative from the school visited our house or attended the cremation. There were no phone calls nor any messages. The last intimation was ‘he has died, he is lying here, please take charge of the dead body,” she added.
Armaan’s father Gulshan Sehgal questioned why the authorities are went hiding after the incident. “If they are saying that the child died due to falling, then should show us the CCTV footage. What are they hiding?” he asked, alleging them of taking down all the CCTV cameras.
Case transferred to Allahabad High Court
“We can sit at home and curse our fate by accepting that our child died due to ‘natural causes’. But we won’t do it and will fight till the end,” he said requesting other parents and the media to stand for the cause.
The family members along with other parents will organise a protest outside the SSP’s office on Thursday. Meanwhile, the case has been transferred to Allahabad High Court.
ScoopWhoop News tried contacting SSP Ghaziabad, Hari Narain Singh but didn’t get any response.
(Feature image source: Facebook | Justice for Armaan Sehgal)
