The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed more than 1,000-page chargesheet under sections 302 (murder) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) before the court of Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Jasbir Singh Kundu in connection with the murder of a seven-year-old student Prince (name changed as per court's order) in a Gurugram school, charging a Class XI student Bholu (name changed as per court's order) of the same school.
The investigation agency has also requested for the discharge of the school bus conductor Ashok Kumar who was initially the prime suspect in the crime, citing he had no role to play. The role of the school and the Gurugram police in accusing the conductor is also being probed by the agency.
The agency has included around 50 witnesses in the case, namely bus conductor Ashok Kumar, Gardner Harpal, driver Saurab Raghav, school teachers, students and management officials.
While the charge sheet was filed after a detailed analysis of the CCTV camera footage from the school, statements of the school management officials, forensic and technical reports, records of Bholu's email, hard disk and mobile phone usage were used as evidence. His behaviour analysis has also been used as grounds while filing the chargesheet.
A thorough examination of the witnesses and the circumstantial evidence has also been conducted.
The agency, however, said that a separate investigation around the suspected role of Haryana Police officials in the preliminary investigation of the case and the school administration's role is still ongoing. Sources claim that the agency will file around 5 thousand page supplementary charge sheet on February 12. At that time the name of Haryana police officials and school management officials could have been disclosed.
The CBI said that fingerprints found at the crime scene matched with that of 'Bholu’s', adding that the source of murder weapon has also been identified.
Also, the special children's court on Monday rejected the bail plea of accused, who is 16 and half-year-old. The accused’s lawyer in the plea stated that in all cases where the minimum sentence is less than 10 years but the maximum sentence is not death or life imprisonment then section 167 (2)(a)(ii) will apply and the accused will be entitled to grant of 'default bail' after 60 days in case charge-sheet is not filed.
“The CBI has charged Bholu in connection with the killing of Prince. It was part of charge-sheet and detailed charge-sheet will be filed soon by the agency. The further investigation into the matter is underway. While the probe agency has given clean chit to the bus conductor. His name was put in the name of the witness. There are substances evidence against the accused which directly indicates that Bholu was the prime offender in the case and he should be convicted,” Sushil Tekriwal lawyer of the complainant, said.
Earlier, the court had barred the media from using the name of the 16-year-old accused in the case and asked it to use fictitious names instead. While the seven-year-old victim was named “Prince” by the court, the juvenile accused was named “Bholu” and the private school in Bhondsi was referred to as “Vidyalaya”.
The case was handed over to the CBI on September 22. It did not find any evidence against Kumar and took the Class XI student into custody on November 8. Kumar got bail on November 21.
The Juvenile Justice Board had on December 20, 2017, held that the 16-year-old boy would be tried as an adult.