Ryan student murder: Gurgaon Police planted knife on conductor, says report

In a sensational twist in the killing of the class II student of Ryan International School, Pradyuman Thakur, the CBI has claimed that the Gurgaon Police framed the school bus conductor and planted a knife on him, declaring the case as solved within hours, a The Times of India (TOI) report said.

Sources told the TOI that the police resorted to framing the bus conductor, Ashok Kumar, since it was under tremendous pressure to solve the case.

The Times of India reported that the CBI had established in its two-month-long investigation that the knife belonged to the main accused in the case, a 16-year-old Class XI student of the same school. A CBI officer told TOI that the knife was purchased by the juvenile from a local shop, brought inside the school and was the only knife which was recovered. He added that the accused student on Thursday guided the investigating agency to the shop from where he had purchased the knife.

(Also Read: Bus conductor to file case against police officers who 'framed' him)

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"The knife was bought by the juvenile from a local shop and he brought it with him inside the school. This is the only knife which was recovered and so the claim of Gurgaon police that Ashok Kumar brought it inside the school and used it to kill the boy has no basis whatsoever," TOI quoted the CBI officer as saying.

While accusing the bus conductor, the Gurgaon Police had said that the school bus conductor had obtained the knife from the toolkit of the bus and was cleaning it in the washroom when Pradyuman came in, the TOI report said. They had claimed that the conductor tried to sexually assault the seven-year-old.

The doctor who had performed the post-mortem had earlier ruled out sexual assault.

The Times of India report states that while the CBI said the murder weapon was recovered from the flush in the washroom where it had been thrown by the student, the Gurgaon Police was silent over where the weapon was recovered from.

The CBI source says the police will present the evidence before the juvenile court.

The agency told the juvenile court yesterday that the accused confessed to his crime in front of his father and an independent witness.

The CBI announced on Tuesday that it had apprehended a senior student of Ryan International School on Tuesday night in connection with the murder of Pradhuman.

The CBI says it zeroed in on the accused teenager after inspecting CCTV footage, call records, questioning of staff and students and the 'suspicious' behaviour of the accused during investigations.

The juvenile court in Gurgaon yesterday sent the student to three days' CBI custody. He is being kept at the Sewa Kutir, a child welfare home, at Delhi's Kingsway Camp.

The CBI has said that there was no evidence against Kumar so far.

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

The agency did not find any evidence of sexual assault, a CBI spokesperson had yesterday.

The Gurgaon Police has refused to comment on the CBI findings. It says that the case was handed over to the CBI before theSpecial Investigation Team (SIT) could finish its probe.

"Our probe by the SIT (Special Investigation Team) headed by DCP Ashok Bakshi was underway and had not concluded before the CBI took over the charge of investigating the case.

"We had arrested Ashok Kumar, the school bus conductor on the basis of prior factual evidence," Gurgaon Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar said at a press meet conference yesterday.

Pradyuman's family had accused the police of botching up the investigation and said the CBI meticulously collected circumstantial evidences and facts.

The family had also alleged a larger conspiracy behind the murder and said that they want the CBI to file a charge sheet soon, PTI reported.

They had also expressed suspicion about the involvement of school authorities in "destruction of evidence" and asked that top officials of the institute be questioned by the CBI.

Ashok Kumar's family says it will file a case against police officers who "framed" him.

"Now it is almost clear that my son Ashok was framed and made a scapegoat. We have decided to file a case against Gurgaon Police SIT officers who framed and used torture and even drugged him to confess before the media that he had committed the crime," said Ashok's father Amirchand.

(With inputs from PTI)