Ryan school murder: SC grants accused bail after 5 years
What's the story
The Supreme Court granted bail to the accused in the 2017 Ryan International School murder case on Thursday. The accused, then a Class 11 student, had allegedly murdered a fellow schoolmate from Class 2 at random to get an approaching examination and a parent-teacher meeting postponed. Noting that the accused has spent five years in detention, the apex court granted him bail.
Context
Why does this story matter?
In September 2017, seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was found dead inside the Gurugram school's washroom, with his throat slit. Hours after the murder was reported, Haryana Police claimed to have solved the case and caught bus conductor Ashok Kumar. The police also claimed Kumar tried to sexually assault the deceased. Later, the case was handed to the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) which arrested the accused.
Twitter Post
Not right to keep...in jail without trial: SC
BREAKING: Supreme Court grants bail to the 16-year old accused in the 2017 Ryan International School murder case. Court says that the act of murdering a 7-year old was barbaric but that doesn’t mean it’s right to keep a 16-year old in jail without trial for almost five years.
— Law Today (@LawTodayLive) October 20, 2022
Information
SC denied accused bail in 2020
The top court had earlier denied bail to the accused in September 2020. The trial is scheduled to resume on October 31. The school bus conductor previously accused was taken into custody and allegedly thrashed brutally. After CBI arrested the accused student and claimed to have gotten a confession from him, his father alleged that he was tortured into giving the statement.
Details
Court decided to try him as adult
In May 2018, a Gurugram court ruled that the accused, who was aged 16 then, be tried as an adult after ruling out mental illness. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) ruled the same in December 2017, but the accused challenged the verdict. The court observed that he was "mature enough to understand the consequences of actions and think of ways to escape punishment."
Madrassa
Similar case reported last month from Haryana
Last month, a 13-year-old boy was arrested for killing a junior student in the madrassa they were studying in Nuh, Haryana. Police said the accused confessed to having murdered the boy as he did not want to study there, and had planned to defame the institution so that it shuts down. The boy had confided in his father, who in turn informed the police.