Gurgaon School Murder Twist Proves Cops Messed Up Investigation: Sources

New Delhi: Two months after a school bus conductor was arrested for the murder of seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur at Ryan International School in Gurgaon near Delhi, a Class 11 student has been detained by the CBI. Pradyuman's family says the 180-degree turn confirms their suspicion that the police in Gurgaon messed up the investigation. The CBI, which took over the case on September 22 after pressure on the Haryana government from Pradyuman's parents, said it began a fresh investigation, reexamined all evidence including call records, and questioned teachers and students.

Confronting allegations of shoddy investigation, Haryana police chief BS Sandhu said: "Koi baat nahin, chalta hai (It does not matter, it happens)". He added that the police investigation was not complete when the case was handed over to the CBI.

The most telling discrepancy is the motive for the crime. The CBI says the Class 11 student wanted to delay exams and also hoped for a parent-teachers' meeting to be cancelled. The police claimed bus conductor Ashok Kumar had confessed to killing the boy after trying to sexually assault him.

The CBI reportedly found the murder weapon in a commode of the toilet near which Pradyuman's body was found. Sources say the police never recovered the weapon from the toilet, though they had claimed to find a knife on the conductor.

Four students and a teacher have told the CBI that they had seen the detained student with a knife a day before. After taking over the investigation, the agency kept questioning teachers, students and staff at the school. The Gurgaon police, however, focused only on the conductor and didn't talk to people in the school enough. The extensive questioning also revealed that the student had told his classmates - before the murder - to stop studying for exams as they would be cancelled.

The student, it was subsequently learnt, had been under psychological evaluation for a year for anger management issues. He was described as a poor student and "disturbed".

The police apparently didn't thoroughly examine the CCTV footage, which revealed that five people were near the toilet at the same time as Pradyuman - not just the bus conductor, as the police said.

Kumar remains in prison and continues to be a suspect for now, say sources.