Manav Singh

A student of Heritage Xperiential Learning School, Gurgaon,[1] he was reportedly doing well academically and wished to study abroad.[13] His father worked in the private sector, while his mother was a homemaker. They were living in a rented condominium in DLF Carlton Estate, Gurugram,[14] and had been living at home since March 2020, when the COVID19 lockdown began.[15]

Almost an hour before his suicide, Kaur had posted an Instagram story alleging an incident which occurred when Manav was 14–15 years old, accusing him of harassing her, touching her inappropriately and demanding sexual favours.[5][10] She says she mentioned his name but did not tag him. Soon, her friends took screenshots and started reposting it, tagging Manav. The harassment began immediately. According to Manav's friends, he was shamed, bullied, and threatened.[5] After the story went viral, Manav received threat calls and messages and was the victim of harassment by the girl and her friends. Manav tried to defend himself and maintained that he was innocent.[6] According to a classmate, Manav pleaded with her friends to take it down, contending that it was not true, but they were relentless. After sustained abuse, he panicked and reached out to his friends.[5] Gurgaon police found chats that Manav had with his friends, minutes before he committed suicide. The boy wrote he was stressed, asking his friends to keep talking to him.[16]

According to an Instagram post by his brother, he had a panic attack, and committed suicide.[7]

On May 4th 2020, at about 11:30 in the evening, Manav jumped off the 11th floor balcony of his home in DLF Carlton Estate, in Gurugram.[17][1] His phone was in his room during dinner, and his family had gone to sleep at 10:30. An hour later, the intercom rang. His mother heard people crying and looked down to see him lying on the ground.[13] The police said a guard saw him in a pool of blood and alerted his parents. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.[16][10]

According to Manoj, after the registration of the FIR, the police was completely passive in investigating the case for 2–3 months and didn't submit details of the probe about the involvement of others in the case.[22] The cops also did not produce Instagram, WhatsApp or Snapchat records.[23] It was at this point that Manoj Singh's lawyer Amish Aggrawala filed a case under the Section 156 clause 3 of the Criminal Procedure Code which empowers the court to direct the police to register an FIR or even monitor the case after the registration. The case reached the Gurgaon court which expressed concern over the slow pace of investigation, noting "the investigating officers are working at a low pace in the present matter for reasons best known to them," directing the Gurugram police to submit a status report every 15 days until the filing of the final report.[24][8][25] According to The Times of India, the father had been running 'Pillar to post' to get justice for Manav.[24]

The chargesheet was filed at the end of January.[26] According to Aggrawala, this chargesheet was preceded by 4 months of stretching out of the investigation by the police.[27] Kaur and a friend are currently facing trial under Section 305 (abetment to suicide) and Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.[23][28] After the chargesheet was filed, the family's legal counsel filed a protest petition, saying the investigation was faulty, because they had named several witnesses and accused, none of which were examined.[26]

In June 2021, the National Human Rights Commission of India intervened in the case after a petition by the boy's family. The Commission conducted a perusal and declared that there had not been a fair investigation in the matter, citing problems such as the silence of the enquiry report on any arrests, the mobile phones not being sent for forensic on time, and the filing of a final report without the procurement of any "mobile phone data report, snapchat, instagram from FSL, Madhuban." The Commission termed the investigation done by the I.O. as "nothing but vitiated investigation which cannot rise to a valid chargesheet.".[29][9]

The commission also cited lapses in investigation by the Investigation Officer, stating that they seem to 'fail to follow the basic principle and procedure of law,' and subsequently directed the state's home department to transfer the case to the state CID and away from the Gurgaon Police.[9][8]

The allegations happened a day after the bois locker room incident, leading many to assume that they were related.[10]