SC grants bail to Gurugram student who allegedly slit 7-year-old junior's throat to get exam postponed

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday granted interim bail to a man who was juvenile, barely 16 years old, when in 2017, he killed a 7-year-old boy in a private school in Gurugram. Three days back, a Juvenile Justice Board ruled that the accused student should be tried as an adult.

What did the Supreme Court say?

A bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and J K Maheshwari said the continued detention of the accused until completion of the trial may have adverse effects on him. Reportedly, he has been in detention for the last five years.

“Accordingly, the prayer for interim relief is granted and until further orders of this court, that is by way of interim measure, the petitioner appellant be released on bail on conditions as may be imposed by sessions judge Gurugram,” the bench said.

It further said, “It is, however, specifically provided that the petitioner appellant shall continuously remain under supervision of a probation officer or any other person appointed by the sessions judge. It is also made clear that the petitioner and his parents would be expected not to create hindrance in the trial of the case and for that matter will not try to contact or communicate with any of the witnesses….”

The bench said if there is any shortcoming in the conduct of the petitioner, the probation officer shall be free to report it to the sessions judge who shall forward the information to the apex court.

The apex court will now hear the matter in January 2023.

‘Accused in the case will be tried as an adult’

On October 17, a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) had ordered that the accused will be tried in the case as an adult. The JJB passed the order after obtaining the opinion of psychologists about whether he, as a teenager at the time when the crime was committed, understood the enormity of the offence and its consequences.

In its charge sheet, the CBI had alleged the teenager murdered his junior on September 8, 2017, in a bid to get the examinations postponed and a scheduled parents-teachers meeting cancelled.

7-year-old boy in Gurgaon school murdered

The infamous incident in 2017 at Gurgaon’s Ryan International School continues to send shockwaves across the country.

The body, of 7-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit in the washroom of the school in the Bhondsi area of Haryana’s Gurugram. Hours after the crime, the police arrested a school bus conductor for his murder. However, on September 22, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case and arrested the accused saying that he had confessed to killing the junior student.

With inputs from PTI

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