On 18 July 2015, 1 am, I stood outside the main gate of Mount Carmel School (MCS), Anand Niketan. Leaning in through a gap between the bars, I asked the school guard about the night of 28 May 2015. “Haan, hum they yahaan, lekin koi jaankaari nahin de sakte aapko—Yes, I was here, but I cannot tell you anything,” he repeated, while shaking his head from side to side, and smiling. I directed my question to the police constable sitting on a plastic chair about ten feet away. He claimed to not have been on duty that night. As I left, I saw the guard unlock the gate and walk out into the night, talking to the constable.
On the night of 28 May 2015, Rahul Moirangthem’s sole concern was that he had to repeat his accountancy exam for grade twelve. By the next day, he would find himself in custody, suspected of breaking into his own school with the intent to rob it. As the weeks wore on, he would become the subject of an investigation conducted by a Special Task Force (STF)—set up in 2012 to investigate heinous crimes in South Delhi. Moirangthem would eventually be held responsible for robbery in two other schools in the area. One of these was the Holy Child Auxilium School (HCAS), the alma mater of Smriti Irani, the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister, from which he has beenaccused of stealing Rs 12,000.
Despite following Moirangthem’s story for over a month, I am still unsure about what exactly happened on the night of 28-29 May, when his on-going struggle with the law began. What is known is that he and two of his friends—all in their late teens, from Manipur, and students of MCS—were arrested either inside the school grounds or outside at around 12 am or 3 am, after having had a few beers and arriving at the school with the intent of either taking pictures or robbery. Depending on whom you ask, the details tend to vary.
The police arrested the three boys that night and detained them at the South Campus police station. A First Investigation Report (FIR) was filed against the three boys, citing sections 457, 380, 511 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that pertain to theft, trespassing, attempting to commit criminal offences and a conspiracy to commit offences respectively.
Sub-inspector Ashok Kumar, the investigating officer (IO) mentioned in the FIR, told me that the boys had climbed into the school and were apprehended by the police, inside, “near the playground.” The boys refuted this, saying they never entered the premises. Kumar also added that, “The four policemen on duty found a screwdriver and a torch on them, and since they were all drunk, they were brought to South Campus police station. They made their confessions the same night, and in the morning, we sent constables to their houses to inform their families.”
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