Dimapur, April 23 (MExN): The Kohima Village Students’ Union (KVSU) has released its ‘fact-finding’ report on the recent incident involving students of Don Bosco Higher Secondary School (DBHSS), Kohima, and also called for restraint and sensitivity from all concerned.
According to the union, it undertook a “thorough investigation to establish the factual sequence of events” following the widespread circulation of a statement written by the father of the alleged victim to the Chairman of the Kohima Village Council (KVC).
The fact-finding exercise was undertaken as agreed upon by all the parties involved, it maintained.
Its investigation, the union clarified, was carried out prior to the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) by the alleged victim’s family and was planned to be released upon the recovery of the alleged victim.
However, with the matter now under police investigation and amid the public circulation of the father’s statement, KVSU said it found it necessary to share its findings “based on the accounts of the alleged accused and multiple eyewitnesses.”
The alleged victim’s family also reached out to one of the union executives to inform them about the incident, and in response, the KVSU President, along with seven other executives, visited the alleged victim and his family at Oking Hospital, Kohima.
Letters written by the father of the alleged victim, addressed to the KVC Chairman and KVSU, were dated the same day—March 30, it added.
According to KVSU’s sequence of events, the alleged incident occurred on February 20 during a break period at the school.
The altercation reportedly began after one of the alleged accused ate from the alleged victim’s tiffin, escalating into a verbal exchange and eventually a mutually agreed fight after school hours.
“The confrontation was a consensual and organized event. All individuals involved arrived at the location voluntarily. There is no evidence to support claims of bully, ambush or coercion,” the Union claimed.
As per the KVSU account, the alleged victim was admitted to hospital on March 25, thirty-three days after the incident, and during the intervening period, he was present for 18 out of 21 working days and also participated in the school’s annual sports week, as per school records.
The KVSU informed that it conducted interviews with 19 individuals, including eyewitnesses and those directly involved, as well as school staff, with the cooperation of the DBHSS disciplinary committee.
Meetings were also held with representatives from the families of both the alleged accused and the alleged victim, it held.
A collective meeting was convened on April 2, involving frontal organisations of Kohima Village and representatives from the parties involved, including a relative of the alleged victim on his family’s behalf.
However, the meeting did not yield any meaningful progress as the alleged victim’s family refused to issue a statement to clarify the inconsistencies in the accounts and further declined to allow Tesophenyu Group Students’ Union and KVSU to issue a joint statement declaring to be involved in the matter together, the Union stated.
Nevertheless, the KVSU asserted that the “investigation has been conducted with impartiality and diligence. All interviews and findings have been properly documented and recorded.”
“Our primary concern remains the well-being of the alleged victim,” KVSU stated, adding that the release of findings was delayed to respect his recovery process, but it had to release it following the filing of the FIR.
“We urge everyone concerned to approach this matter with sensitivity and refrain from spreading unverified information that could disturb communal harmony or misrepresent the truth,” stated the official statement issued by the KVSU President Khriesaneikuo Kire and General Secretary Kiyakhrienuo Solo.
