Patna: The Patna civil court on Thursday reserved its order on the bail plea of Manish Ranjan, owner of a building housing a girls’ hostel, who remains lodged in Beur Central Jail in connection with the alleged rape and subsequent death of a NEET student. The hearing, which continued for the second consecutive day, lasted nearly four hours, with about two hours conducted inside the judge’s chamber.Ranjan was produced from judicial custody for the proceedings. The victim’s counsel opposed the bail, invoking a full-bench judgment of the Patna high court. Ranjan’s lawyer contested the applicability of the precedent. After extensive arguments from all sides, the court reserved its decision.During the open court session, the judge posed questions to the initial investigating officer and former Chitragupta Nagar police station in-charge Roshni Kumari. The court asked why the statement of the victim’s classmate, who entered the room along with the maid, was not video-recorded, and why Manish Ranjan, who appeared at the police station on Jan 10, was neither formally questioned nor his role properly probed despite his eventual arrest.The special public prosecutor described Ranjan as the “mastermind” behind the crime, saying that besides owning the building, he also functioned as co-manager of the girls’ hostel.The court then questioned the investigating officer of the case and CBI assistant superintendent of police Pawan Srivastava over the non-examination of the victim’s seized mobile phone and Ranjan’s phone. The CBI conceded that eight cellphones were seized in the case but none were forensically examined and remain in the malkhana.The judge expressed strong disapproval over the initial FIR being registered only under attempt-to-murder sections despite the girl’s death, the failure to ascertain the exact cause of death and the lack of investigation into other hostel residents.Outside the courtroom, the victim’s mother, visibly distraught, accused Bihar Police, the SIT and the CBI of orchestrating a cover-up. Ranjan’s name is deliberately kept out of the case. She alleged that sons of ministers and MLAs used to visit the hostel in luxury cars. “They destroyed my daughter’s life,” she alleged, before fainting while addressing the media. She reiterated her faith in the judiciary while lamenting systemic neglect of poor girls seeking education.
