Fight over bucket leads to student's death in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The recent death of a 14-year-old Class IX student from Keonjhar district at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhubaneswar has turned out be a murder, with police revealing on Wednesday that he was strangled by three classmates during a scuffle on the night of Dec 11.

The fight reportedly started over a bucket, police said.While the three minors were sent to an observation home after being produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and categorised as 'children in conflict with law', police also booked eight KISS officials on charges of murder and destruction of evidence. They were remanded in judicial custody by a court."The three minors confessed to beating and strangling the deceased after he refused to hand over a bucket in the toilet block.

The accused branded themselves as 'joker's gang', written on the hostel wall. Several other hostel inmates witnessed the crime. The eight KISS officials, including teachers & staff, intimidated the minor witnesses to conceal the crime," police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said.The accused KISS officials were identified as additional CEO Pramod Patra, and staff members Binay Kumar Gochhi, Prasanna Kumar Malla, Pradeep Das, Rashmiranjan Nayak, Hemanta Kumar Mohapatra, Subhakanta Behera and Sujata Mishra.

Police accused the institute of covering up the murder from the outset. "Instead of informing police, they contacted the boy's parents claiming he was unwell. The student was admitted to KIMS Hospital, but doctors did not alert local police, conducted no autopsy, and issued a slip to the father stating the boy died of a heart attack. We will investigate the hospital's suspected negligence," Singh said.When contacted by TOI, both KISS and KIMS authorities refused to comment.The boy's father lodged a police complaint in Keonjhar on Dec 13, where a zero FIR was filed. It was later transferred to Infocity police station in Bhubaneswar. The autopsy was conducted same day in Keonjhar. On Tuesday evening, police received the report. "Findings clearly indicated that he was murdered," Singh added.