Gurugram: A Sessions Court on Monday denied bail to a 16-year-old Ryan International student who has been accused of killing seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur in the school premises and is now being tried as an adult.
Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu had reserved his order on the teen’s bail application on January 6. During the hearing, the counsels advocating for the CBI and Pradyuman's father Barun Thakur had submitted that the investigation was at a crucial juncture and that the statements of all witnesses were yet to be recorded.
The CBI counsel had also argued that if the juvenile is released on bail, evidence could be tampered with and witnesses could be intimidated.
The Sessions Court on Monday also dismissed the defence counsel’s argument that the accused be given ‘default bail’ since the CBI failed to file a chargesheet within a month.
Sandeep Aneja, lawyer for the accused, had argued that under Section 10(5) of the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016, the chargesheet should have been filed within a month. "As the CBI has failed to complete the probe within the given time, the child should be given the benefit of default bail," said Aneja.
The CBI objected to this, saying that rules nowhere spoke about completion of the investigation within a month. The agency maintained that since the accused is involved in a “heinous crime”, it was not bound to file the chargesheet within 30 days.
The defence lawyer has filed two more applications — one opposing the Juvenile Justice Board's decision to allow the CBI to record the teenager’s fingerprint. The second application challenges the legality of the teen’s CBI custody between November 8 and 11. The court will hear these appeals on January 22.
Pradyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit in the Gurugram school's washroom on September 8. The Gurgaon Police had initially claimed that the crime was committed by a school bus conductor, which was later refuted by the CBI.
The CBI has alleged that the teenager killed Pradyuman so the school would be forced to postpone examinations and a parent-teacher meeting.