School’s petition to quash FIR dismissed

ALLAHABAD/GHAZIABAD: The Allahabad High Court on Friday dismissed a writ petition filed by the principal and other office bearers of GD Goenka School, Indirapuram, seeking to quash an FIR against them in connection with the death of a Class 4 student.

The FIR was lodged under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC at the Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad.

The bench comprising justice Govind Mathur and justice AK Gupta dismissed the writ petition filed by Dr Kavita Sharma, principal of the school, as the investigating officer had already filed a chargesheet against her and four others in the case.

The parents of 10-year-old Arman Sehgal on Friday, however, said that they were not satisfied with the sections in the chargesheet filed by the police.

“The police filed a chargesheet against five school officials and submitted the document before the high court on Friday. Instead of IPC section of 304, the police chargesheeted the five under section 304a (causing death by negligence) of IPC. We are not satisfied with the investigation and the section is not acceptable to us,” said Swati Sehgal, Arman’s mother.

The school authorities said they would also contest the chargesheet. “We have several objections and will contest it,” Gopal Chaturvedi, the lawyer representing the school authorities in Allahabad, said.

On August 1, 2017, Arman Sehgal, a student of Class 4, died after falling on the second floor outside his classroom. He was declared dead in hospital. The boy’s parents had lodged an FIR against the school.