School head, who gave age certs to outlaws, in cop net
2 min readPATNA: Police on Wednesday arrested the proprietor of a school being run on paper with the sole purpose of issuing certificates to criminals for proving them juvenile in courts and saving them from punishment.
Bhawani Shankar Pandey (48), a native of Dharhar in Rohtas district, was allegedly running ‘Om Shiv Parvati Shantiniketan’ in Shastri Nagar. The school is just a room on the premises of a temple at Sheikhpura Bagicha. Bhawani’s residence is also on the same premises, police said.
According to Shastri Nagar police station SHO Nihar Bhushan, Bhawani admitted before police that he had been into this “business” since 2005. “He used to depose in courts in favour of the criminals to whom he issued school certificates. He would charge Rs 50,000 in each case,” Bhushan said, adding Bhawani also issued a certificate to the main accused in the sensational Golu kidnapping case of 2005.
Golu alias Guarav Kumar, a standard IV student of D A V Public School at Saguna Mor, was the son of iron trader Anil Singh. He was kidnapped by car-borne criminals on September 22, 2005 from Gola Road under the Danapur police station area, when he was on way to home after getting down from school bus.
The SHO said the school was disaffiliated by the Bihar School Examination Board three years back. Three diaries were recovered from Bhawani’s possession. The diaries contained contact details of criminals and the amount paid by them, the SHO said.
Police got information about Bhawani after Jayanti Jha, complainant in the case of murder of marble trader Ramchandra Jha, complained to SSP Manu Maharaaj that main accused Ranjeet Kumar might produce a fake certificate to prove himself a juvenile.
Jha, who was Ranjeet’s business partner, was shot dead at Mithila Colony under the Beur police station area on September 12, 2016.
“We probed Jayanti’s complaint and arrested Bhawani,” the SSP said, adding police would now investigate how many criminals were illegally benefited by Bhawani.
Courtesy: TNN
