A special Gurugram court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of the bail plea of bus conductor Ashok Kumar, till 20 November. Kumar was arrested by the Haryana Police for murdering Class II student, Pradyuman Thakur, of Ryan International school in Bhondsi area of Gurugram city in Haryana.

According to media reports, the CBI has stated that there is no evidence against the bus conductor so far. The agency has not opposed the bus conductor’s bail but has not given a clean chit to him either.

Advertisement

Earlier, Lawyers representing Ashok Kumar had moved a bail application on 10 November, after CBI accused a school student of committing the murder.

On 8 September, Class II student Pradyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit in a bathroom of Ryan International School.

The family of the bus conductor had earlier said that Kumar was allegedly tortured by the Haryana Police and was made to confess to Pradyuman’s murder under ‘duress’.

Haryana Police arrested Kumar few hours after Pradyuman’s body was discovered in the school’s bathroom. Police had also claimed that Kumar brought a knife from the bus tool box and threw it into the toilet after the murder.

The investigation into Pradyuman’s murder took a dramatic twist on 8 November, when the CBI arrested the Class 11 student, also of Ryan International School, and charged him with murdering the young boy in the school washroom.

On 23 September, the CBI took custody of the bus conductor, who as per the Haryana Police had killed the child after a failed bid to sodomise the victim.

Meanwhile, Varun Thakur, the father of the victim, moved the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on  Wednesday requesting the 16-year-old accused be treated as an adult during trial.

His plea will be heard by the board on November 22.

According to the CBI investigation, the juvenile committed the murder in a bid to postpone the school’s scheduled examinations and parent-teacher meetings.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pradyuman’s father had alleged that Haryana Cabinet Minister Rao Narbir Singh told the family not to demand a CBI inquiry and spoke strongly against a probe by the agency.

(With agency inputs)