After visiting the grief-stricken family of seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur — a Class II student of Ryan International School who was found with his throat slit in the school washroom last Friday, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar on Friday recommended CBI probe into the gruesome murder. The Chief Minister also announced that the State Government will take over the management of the school for three months.
Talking to the media after the meeting, the Chief Minister said, “This incident was unfortunate... Today I came here to meet the family. There was a demand from the family members and several others for handing over the case to the CBI for investigation.”
“The Haryana Police has been properly conducting a probe into this case. Despite that and in view of the demand, this case is being handed over to the CBI. I appeal to the agency to investigate the case as expeditiously as possible,” he added.
“A parallel enquiry will be initiated in the case. Police teams are investigating different angles in this horrendous murder. The culprits of the case will get harsh punishment,” Khattar said.
On action initiated against the school, the Chief Minister said the Government has also decided to take over the management of Ryan International School’s Bhondsi campus for a period of three months. The Deputy Commissioner of Gurugram will be its administrator during this period.
The Chief Minister reached Thakur’s house in Gurugram around 4.45 pm on Friday and offered condolence to the grieving family members.
Pradyuman’s father Varun Thakur told him that though police are doing their job, he is not satisfied with the probe and demanded the investigation be transferred to the CBI.
Thakur said the responsibility of school managements should be fixed in such cases. “In future, the schools should ensure that such incidents did not occur on their premises,” he added.
Pradyuman’s murder snowballed into a major national issue of safety and security of children in schools, with vociferous protests held by parents and activists outside Ryan schools in several States.
Meanwhile, Mohit Verma, lawyer of prime accused bus conductor Ashok Kumar, said, “We have met Ashok in jail and he told me that he is being framed in the case. The investigation officer beat him badly to make him confess to the crime. My client Ashok confessed to the crime verbally before the magistrate but not in writing. Police have taken his statement when he was not in his senses. Ashok told me that when his statement was recorded by police, he was given an injection and police even gave him electric shocks to extract a confession,” the advocate claimed.
Earlier in the day, Commissioner of Gurugram Police Sandeep Khirwar said police will file the chargesheet soon and they were piecing together all the evidence gathered by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The chargesheet will be backed up by solid material, forensic, circumstantial and corroborative evidence, he added.