Teen Student Accused Of Killing 7-Year-Old In Gurgaon School Denied Bail

Gurgaon: The 16-year-old student, accused of killing seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur at the Ryan International School, won't be released from custody as a Gurgaon court today rejected his bail plea for the first time since the Juvenile Justice Board's ruling that the accused be treated as an adult. Additional sessions judge Jasbir Singh Kundu also imposed a fine of Rs 21,000 for "wasting the court's time" in "baseless litigation" and directed the teen's father to deposit the amount.

The teen is accused of murdering the class 2 student of the same school, picked at random, to defer an approaching examination and a parent-teacher meeting.

Pradyuman, a seven-year-old student of the same school, was found with his throat slit outside the school's washroom on September 8 last year. The Gurgaon Police had immediately arrested a school bus conductor for his murder. However, a month later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was handed over the case, arrested the Class 11 student, saying the teen had confessed to killing Pradyuman.

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The CCTV footage from cameras outside the school washroom showed the teen was the last one to leave the washroom, the agency said. He was sent to a juvenile home in November and has been there since then.

The teen, reportedly under psychiatric evaluation for a year over anger issues, had been questioned several times and his account kept changing, sources say. His father, however, alleged that his son was "hung upside down and brutally thrashed" in order to extract a confession.

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Pradyuman's parents had appealed that the teen accused be tried as an adult. The Juvenile Justice Board, on December 20 last year, while noting that the accused was mature enough to recognise the consequences of his actions, held that he would be tried as an adult and directed that he be produced before the Gurgaon sessions court.

If convicted, the accused will stay in a correctional home till he is 21 after which the court can shift him to a jail or grant him bail, the board said.