Ryan School Murder: Unanswered Questions About Police Version

“I feel my son was an eyewitness to something and was silenced as a result of that,” said the murdered boy’s father.

Barun Thakur, father of the 7-year-old boy who was found murdered inside the premises of the Ryan International School in Bhondsi, Gurugram, says he wants a “court-monitored CBI inquiry” into his son’s death.

I am not convinced with the Gurugram Police line of investigation. How is it possible that a conductor murdered a child inside the school premises when the school is at its busiest?

Barun Thakur, father of murdered Ryan International School student

There are a number of unanswered questions in the murder of Pradyumn Thakur, the Class 2 student who was found lying in a pool of blood inside a toilet of the school.

While Ashok Kumar, a 42-year-old bus conductor, has been arrested after he reportedly confessed to the crime, Barun says that he is not convinced by the police’s version of the events that unfolded on the day he lost his son.

Chain of Events

The father dropped off the child at the school main gate at 7:55 am.

At 8:10 am he received a call from the school saying his son has been injured and is being rushed to Artemis Hospital.

Within 15 minutes the following things happened, according to the police

• The child walked from the main gate to the class or the toilet.
• The conductor, who was already present inside the toilet, tried to sexually abuse the child. When the child resisted, the conductor took out a knife, slit the child’s throat twice, escaped from the toilet and merged into the crowd.
• Someone from the school found Pradyumn’s body lying in a pool of blood inside the toilet and reported it to the school authorities.
• School authorities rushed to the toilet, identified the child and called his father to inform him that his son was injured and asked him to rush to the hospital.

‘My Son Was Silenced’

Pradyumn’s father told The Quint that he believes it was a planned murder.

I feel my son was an eyewitness to something and was silenced as a result of that.

Barun Thakur, Pradyumn’s father

Barun said it takes about 10 minutes for a 7-year-old to walk from the main gate to the toilet or class. How is it possible that within five minutes of that, an attempt of sexual abuse was made on him, he was murdered for resisting the alleged abuse, his body was discovered, school authorities reached the crime scene, sent him to the hospital and informed the parents?

Parents of Pradyumn’s classmates told Barun that their children were asked by someone in the school to clean the bloodstains from his water bottle. This is not only tampering with evidence but also a dreadful task to assign to 7-year-olds. Moreover, why would a child carry a water bottle inside the toilet? Barun was also told that blood was cleaned from the toilet’s floor, although he has not seen the crime scene.

He said that although the school assembly starts at 8 am everyday, on 8 September, it was conducted through loudspeakers and the children were in classrooms. This means there were children not only in the classrooms but also the corridors and toilets. Why would the conductor use the kids’ toilet to sexually abuse a child, that too during the busiest hour of the school day when there were kids around? The staff have separate toilets.

According to the DCP, the conductor has no criminal record. The cops have asked for police verification records of all the staff in the school.

There are witnesses in this case but we cannot divulge details about them. We have also collected some CCTV footage. 

Ashok Bakshi, DCP, Gurugram Police