Class 11 boy behind murder at Ryan, says CBI. So why did Gurugram cops frame bus conductor?

The murder case of seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur, who was found with his throat slit on 8 September at Ryan International School in Gurugram, Haryana, just took another twist.

The CBI has held a Class 11 student in connection with the crime. According to the CBI, the motive of the 16-year-old was to have exams postponed in school.

The Gurugram police had earlier arrested bus conductor, Arun Kumar, for the murder, claiming he had confessed the crime.

The Class 11 student from Ryan International School was apprehended on Tuesday night by the CBI and will be produced in front of a juvenile justice court today.

The CBI, which took over the case from Gurugram Police last month, said that the CCTV footage that was referred to earlier was just a small part of the available video. Upon scrutiny, investigators found that five people were seen standing outside the bathroom after Pradyuman was attacked inside. The Class 11 student was among them.

The Gurugram Police had earlier said that CCTV footage showed the child crawling out, holding his slit neck, and collapsing next to a wall, a pool of blood around him. The police then said that another figure was seen exiting the bathroom before the injured child, who was assumed to be the bus conductor.

Lapses in Gurugram police's investigation

However, the CBI’s version of the series of events highlights the lapses in the investigation by the Gurugram Police. CBI sources claim that the Gurugram police made many errors.

Among them, the fact that the extended video shows five people outside the bathroom - an injured Pradyuman, three students and the bus conductor. The CBI says that in that group was a Class 11 student who is now considered the main suspect.

The same student reportedly called out to a school gardener to alert him to a bleeding Pradyuman. The conductor, who was later arrested, helped carry his body to a car which rushed Pradyuman to hospital.

The Gurugram Police said that Ashok Kumar, the conductor, who was employed by a private firm that operated school buses, had used a knife from his toolkit to slit open Pradyuman's neck when he resisted sexual assault in the bathroom. The police also claimed that Ashok Kumar had confessed to the killing.

The question that arises here is, did the Gurugram Police force a murder confession out of the bus conductor?

Holes emerge

Pradyuman's father, Varun Thakur, who had been unconvinced by the Gurugram police’s version of the murder from the get go, certainly feels so. He had demanded that the CBI take over the investigation. He told reporters that he believes the CBI’s version and had also previously accused the Gurugram police of a cop out.

Moreover, the CBI’s search of the toilet led them to the knife that had been flushed down a pot and that the Class 11 student had been seen with the same knife in school before the murder. The student had also allegedly told his classmates that their exams would be postponed. CBI sources say the teenager was in counselling and is academically weak and he believed the crime would delay exams and a parent-teacher meeting.

The CBI said that while the student had planned a murder, he had "not identified the target" and chose Prayudman upon encountering him in the toilet.

His father has denied the accusations, stating that the teen “didn’t have one spot of blood on his clothes" and is being framed.

But so does Ashok Kumar's family.