A bus conductor was arrested for Pradyuman Thakur's gruesome murder inside the school.
New Delhi:
Weeks after the murder of a Class 2 student in a toilet, Gurgaon's Ryan International School opened today with 40 new CCTV cameras and a new security agency guarding its premises.
The school was ordered to
shut down the last time it opened, as security measures were found critically wanting even days after seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit after he visited the toilet near his classroom on September 8. A schoolbus staff who was present in the toilet, according to security footage, and left just before the boy was seen crawling out and collapsing was arrested the same night.
The
Haryana government took over the administration of the school last Monday while the police said that the school couldn't resume classes before its security gaps were plugged. The owners, Ryan Pinto, the CEO of Ryan International, and his parents Augustine and Grace Pinto, the founders, had gone to the High Court last week requesting anticipatory bail, but the court
didn't grant them any reprieve.
Last week, when the
school reopened to a thin attendance, while parents feared for their children's safety, students
refused to attend classes or enter the toilet where the gruesome murder took place.
"Security and facilities at Ryan today were no different from the dreadful September 8, nothing has changed since," a parent had told NDTV.
Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh has assured parents that their feedback and other concerns will be addressed.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is now in charge of the case after Pradyuman's father, Varun Thakur, threatened to approach the Supreme Court if the agency did not start its investigation at the earliest.
A three-member
CBI team along with forensic experts investigated the school premises for over seven hours on Saturday. The forensic team collected finger-print samples, footprints, videographed and clicked pictures of the crime spot. Later, they sealed the crime spot. Three people -- the prime suspect, Ashok Kumar and two members of the school staff --were taken into custody.
After Pradyuman's murder, a three-member Special Investigation Team had revealed shocking lapses in the security arrangement. The bus drivers and conductors besides the school staff share toilet facilities with students and the boundary wall of the school was found to be broken, which meant easy access to outsiders, their report had said.