Gurugram Student, Who Allegedly Slit Junior's Throat Over Exam, Gets Bail

The Supreme Court today granted bail to the accused in the chilling 2017 case in which the then 16-year-old had murdered his junior, seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur. Both were students of the Gurgaon's Ryan International School.

Earlier, the Juvenile Justice Board had clarified that the accused student should be tried as adult and not as juvenile.

After noting that the accused has been in detention for the last five years, the top court granted bail.

The then class 11 student was accused of murdering the class two student of the same school, picked at random, to defer an approaching examination and a parent-teacher meeting.

The seven-year-old student was found with his throat slit outside the school's washroom on September 8, 2017. 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 accused, saying he had confessed to killing Pradyuman.

The boy's father had alleged that the confession was extracted by torture. His son, he said, had been "hung upside down and brutally thrashed".

A medical examination of the accused had ruled out mental illness, after which a judge had said that the juvenile in conflict with law was mentally capable of committing an offence.

Trial in the case is scheduled to begin on October 31.