Gurugram School Murder: Juvenile to Be Tried as Adult, Says Court

The accused’s fingerprints will be used as evidence, the sessions court said.

Parents stage a protest at Jantar Mantar over the murder of a seven-year-old student at a Gurugram school.

(Photo: IANS)

A sessions court in Gurugram on Monday, 21 May, ruled that the juvenile accused in the murder case at a private school in the city should be tried as an adult.

The Gurugram court rejected a plea against the juvenile board order holding the 16-year-old accused student as an adult in the murder of the seven-year-old boy inside the school last September.

Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu junked the appeal of the student along with other two pleas in the case. The court had earlier granted the Central Bureau of Investigation time till 4 July to file a supplementary chargesheet in the murder case

The court further added that the fingerprints of the accused will be considered as evidence, News18 reported.

Sushil Tekriwal, the lawyer representing the deceased student’s family, had argued that the JJB's order declaring the 16-year-old accused as an adult was "well-reasoned" and there was no fault and "nothing illegal" in it, reported PTI.

The counsel for the 16-year-old accused had challenged the JJB order, saying it was "bad in law" and passed without giving him proper opportunity to present his case.

Earlier, the court had barred the media from using the name of the 16-year-old juvenile accused in the case and asked it to use fictitious names instead.

The JJB had, on 20 December, last year, held that the teenager would be tried as an adult and directed his production before the Gurgaon Sessions Court.

The CBI, in a charge sheet, had alleged that the teenager had murdered the student on 8 September, last year, in a bid to get the examinations postponed and a scheduled parent-teacher meeting cancelled.

The victim's body, with the throat slit, was found in the washroom of the school.

The probe agency had given a clean chit to school bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who was earlier arrested by the Gurgaon Police, saying there was no evidence to prove his involvement in the crime.

The CBI had taken up the case from the Gurgaon police on 22 September, following a nationwide uproar over the gruesome killing.

(With inputs from News18 and PTI)

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