A fresh hearing into the matter of high profile Gurugram school murder case in which a Class XI student had murdered his junior schoolmate on September 8 last year, started before the JJ Board on Friday.
Also, a regular bail plea was filed by the accused teenager’s father under section 12 of the Juvenile Justice Act and it will be considered on October 30. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the lawyer for the seven-year-old victim opposed the bail application.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court in its order on October 12 at Chandigarh had asked the Gurugram Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to reconsider its decision to try a minor accused of murdering a seven-year-old schoolboy as an adult within a period of six weeks.
The bail plea was moved before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu and was forwarded to the Judicial Magistrate (first class) Pradeep Chaudhary of the Juvenile Justice Board. The probe agency has filed their reply related to bail plea of the juvenile which will come on hearing on October 30.
The CBI in their reply asserted that in case , Bholu the petitioner (imaginary name given by the trial court) is granted bail he may tamper with the prosecution evidence and also intimidate/influence the prosecution witness. The agency also mentioned that he may abscond which would hamper the course of the trial so the bail plea should be dismissed.
“A medical board will be constituted into the matter who will consider the medical report and other related aspects in the case. The next hearing into the matter has been scheduled for October 30. A detailed argument on the bail application will take place on the next hearing,” Sushil Tekriwal, lawyer for the seven-year-old victim, said.
In December 2017, the Juvenile Justice Board had ordered that the juvenile accused be tried as an adult. In July, the Supreme Court rejected the teenager’s bail plea.
“According to the high court direction the JJ Board will also review its decision within the span of six weeks whether the teenager will be tried as an adult or not. A medical board will again consider all the aspects related with the case,” Tekriwal said.
The defence lawyer in the bail application argued that the teenager has spent almost a year in the correction home and there no other concrete matter is available in the case. Also, the high court has also considered the teenager as minor.
Earlier, Special children court had on May 21 held that the 16-year-old teenager accused would be tried as an adult of murdering his junior schoolmate at a Gurugram school.
The CBI named the juvenile suspect, a student of Class 11, as prime accused in the case in its first charge sheet in the case in February.
The 7-year-old boy Prince (imaginary name given by the trial court was found with his throat slit in his school on September 8, 2017.
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”.