The CBI, on Sunday, said the investigation into Ryan International School student Pradyumn Thakur’s murder has revealed illegality and destruction of evidence by Gurugram Police, ANI reported.
Former CBI Director AP Singh said that criminal action will be taken against local police in cases of criminal liability.
After conclusion of investigation, CBI points out lapses by local police and criminal action is taken against local police in cases of criminal liability. These things come under CBI purview.Former CBI Director AP Singh to ANI
After facing pressure from all fronts, the Haryana Police had earlier accepted that they botched the probe into the murder in the school bathroom. The CBI has taken over the investigation, and named a class 11 student of the same school as the prime accused based on CCTV footage.
According to a report in DNA, the Gurugram Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar summoned the initial investigating team on Saturday, which had pinned the murder on a bus conductor of the school, Ashok Kumar, and alleged he was a paedophile who had attempted to sexually assault Pradyumn. It was in this meeting that the cops admitted that they had made mistakes.
The report also says that the cops admitted to not watching the CCTV footage carefully, the first eight seconds of which shows the now-accused teenager calling Pradyumn into the bathroom. However, the police did not make any statement on how they could have missed something like this.
Cops Accept They Botched Up Murder Probe, But Was it Deliberate?
As per the DNA report, Khirwar pulled up the cops for the mess they made of the probe and demanded an extensive inquiry on the matter, including the exact details of the police officers who monitored the CCTV footage and the evidence, which led them to accuse Ashok Kumar of being the murderer.
Sources have told DNA that the CBI has now started investigating whether the police deliberately framed Ashok by planting the evidence.
The Gururgam police had earlier claimed that Ashok had taken a knife from the bus’ toolkit to clean in the bathroom when he chanced upon Pradyumn entering. However, according to the CBI’s theory, the police planted a blood-soaked knife in Ashok’s possession, forced a confession out of him and also tortured the bus driver, Saurav Raghav, to confess that there was indeed a knife in the tool-kit.
A key statement to support this theory by the CBI is a statement made by Raghav to them stating that when he cleaned the toolkit two days before the murder on 6 September, he found no knife. He also added that if someone kept one in the kit after that, any of the two cameras in the bus would have recorded it, which none did.
Accused Wanted to Postpone Exams: Report
Both Pradyumn and the accused were known to each other since they both attended piano classes at the school, said a Times of India report.
The report, quoting sources, said that the Class XII student confessed to the Juvenile Justice Board that he has exam-phobia and wanted to postpone them. After reaching the school, he left his bag in the classroom and then went to the ground floor with the knife. Since he knew Pradyumn, he then easily managed to convince him to accompany him to the washroom where he then slit his throat.
The accused did not have any bloodstains on his uniform because Pradyumn's bag acted as a shield, the report said. He then left the knife and ran out to call the teachers.
He claimed that he lost interest in studies because of frequent fights between his parents.
The district child protection team will meet the parents, neighbours and friends of the accused and prepare a report.
Student Allegedly Researched Types of Poison, Fingerprint Removal
Multiple sources connected to the probe told Hindustan Times that the accused student researched various types of poison and their usage, along with how to remove fingerprints from a murder weapon on the internet.
According to the report in HT, the CBI went through the search history of the boy on his phone and laptop.
Investigators suspect that after killing the student by slitting his throat, the accused deliberately threw the weapon, a knife which he procured a day before the murder from Sohna, in the commode of the toilet where the incident took place on [8 September].CBI Source speaking to Hindustan Times
The report also claims that the shopkeeper from who the student allegedly purchased the knife could not identify him, and neither could the student. However, the accused told the investigators that it was his hop he bought the knife from. It was on Thursday earlier this week that the CBI took the accused to Sohna market to identify the shop.
Additionally, the investigation has also revealed that the reason blood didn’t stain Pradyumn’s shirt from the back when his throat was slit was because he was wearing a schoolbag on his shoulders at the time.
The CBI, after interrogating the accused, told Gurgaon’s Juvenile Justice Board headed by principal magistrate Devender Singh on Saturday that the accused was no longer required for questioning as they were sure about the sequence of events. The student has been sent to the Faridabad observation home for children until 22 November. He is likely to be sent for a psychiatric assessment as well, which will help the board decide whether to try him as an adult or not, a request made emphatically by Pradyumn’s parents.
Devender Singh has appointed Nisha Saini, a legal-cum-probation officer from the district child protection unit, to conduct a social investigation and submit a report within 15 days.
CBI Recreates Bathroom Crime Scene
On Saturday, the CBI recreated the crime scene inside the bathroom of Ryan International School, Bhondsi with the help of a bag, a water bottle and a giant teddy bear to
According to a report in The Times of India, a CBI team of at least 15 people reached the school at 11:30 AM on Saturday along with the class 11 student who stands accused of the murder. They stayed there until 3:30 PM in the afternoon. Sources also told TOI around 50 teachers who were in the school, barring primary school teachers, were asked to describe the sequence of events as they witnessed it. The juvenile accused was even paraded in front of the teachers who were asked if he approached anyone of them on the day of the murder.
On Friday, too, the CBI team visited the school and questioned the staff for almost twelve hours starting 10 AM in the morning. Nine of the teachers who were involved with the accused’s education were extensively interrogated on Friday, according to the report.
On both days, teachers were specifically asked if the boy had confessed to the crime in front of them at any point, but no one could confirmed this, sources told TOI.
After the visit on Saturday, the accused was taken back to the juvenile court in Vikas Sadan. The CBI said they are now sure of the sequence of events.
(This is a developing story and will be updated.)
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