Ryan School Murder: Juvenile Sent To Observation Home Till Nov 22

Gurgaon: A Gurgaon juvenile court today sent the teenager apprehended by the CBI in connection with the killing of a seven-year-old boy in Ryan International School here to an observation home in Faridabad for 11 days.

CBI sources said the court has fixed the next date of hearing on November 22. During the three-day custody given to the agency on November 9 by the court, the teenager was kept at child welfare home Sewa Kutir at Kingsway Camp in Delhi on its direction.

Earlier in the day, the apprehended teenager, a class 11 student of the school, was taken by the Central Bureau of Investigation to the school to recreate the crime scene which was videographed by the agency, they said. The sources said the team reached the school at around noon along with the accused and remained there for over three hours before taking him to the juvenile court where a hearing was scheduled.

The team asked the teenager to explain the events that took place on September 8 morning when Pradhuman, a class 2 student of the school, was allegedly killed by him, in the presence of school staff including a gardener, they said.

The gardener was reportedly one of the first persons to be informed by the accused that an injured boy was lying near a washroom, they said.

The apprehended teenager was asked to explain entire chain of events, even the smallest of the details, that unfolded on that day as the team did its crime scene recreation, a corroborative exercise to ascertain the claims of the accused, they said. The sources said the CBI officials also used a dummy in the form of a soft toy to ask him how he allegedly killed Pradhuman.

Meanwhile, the father of teenager today alleged that the CBI was torturing his son which was strongly refuted by the agency.

The sources said the juvenile court has appointed an independent welfare officer to monitor the investigation and questioning of the apprehended student. They said the officer, a completely independent entity, remains present during the questioning sessions and also whenever the accused is taken to a location.

The sources said the agency is trying to analyse all aspects and possibilities in the murder case. Pradhuman was found near the toilet of Ryan International School with his throat slit on September 8 morning within an hour of his father leaving him at the school.

The Gurgaon Police had arrested a bus conductor of the school pinning the blame of the murder on him. In a sensational twist to the case, the CBI recently announced that it had apprehended the senior student in connection with the murder of Pradhuman rejecting the Gurgaon Police theory that the killing was the handiwork of school bus conductor Ashok Kumar.

According to the agency, the Class 11 student, believed to be weak in studies, allegedly slit Pradhuman's throat to get the school to declare a holiday in order to defer a scheduled parent-teacher meeting (PTM) and an examination.

PTI