Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: A class-VIII girl living in the hostel of a private school in Bihar has been arrested for killing a six-year-old boy of LKG class, who also lived in the same hostel, allegedly because he had seen the girl in an intimate condition with the hostel watchman in the toilet.

While the 16-year-old accused initially told police at Fatuha in Patna district that she strangulated Abhimanyu in a fit of anger after he tore off a page in her answer book, she later confessed the real reason. “I killed him because what he saw would have brought a bad name to me and my family in society,” said the girl in her confession that was videotaped, said a police official.

Abhimanyu’s body was found in his bed at the hostel of Sephali International School at Fatuha, about 30 km from Patna, on July 9 morning. He had been sharing a room with her two elder sisters and the accused girl in the hostel run in a rented building.

“The autopsy report confirmed strangulation as the cause of the boy’s death. The accused confessed that she pressed the boy’s neck hard with both her hands for about ten minutes when he was asleep late on July 8 night,” said SP (Patna rural) Anand Kumar.

Abhimanyu had seen the accused girl and the hostel watchman, Pappu, in an intimate condition in a toilet at the hostel on July 6, she confessed. Pappu also tried to take her into the toilet again the next day, but failed as some other girls were present. Pappu has been absconding since Abhimanyu was found dead. police are conducting raids for his arrest.

Police sources said it was found during the investigation that Pappu had been blackmailing girls living in the hostel after making video clips of their “objectionable postures”.

Abhimanyu’s uncle Santosh Singh alleged that though the boy had earlier complained to the school principal about certain “bad behaviour” by a young man with the girls, the school authorities had taken no action. The school remains closed since Abhimanyu’s murder.

The accused girl, a resident of Vaishali district, was sent to a reform centre at Gaighat after being produced before he juvenile justice board in Patna.