PINTOS TOLD TO JOIN PROBE BY SEPTEMBER 26

GURGAON: Gurgaon police on Friday summoned the CEO and trustees of the Ryan foundation, that runs the city-based Ryan International School for questioning, on September 26 over the murder of an eight-year-old student at the Bhondsi branch of the school.

The Haryana government had earlier decided to handover the case to the CBI.

The move comes after the Punjab and Haryana High Court refused to stay the arrest of the group’s chief executive officer Ryan Pinto and two trustees — Augustine Pinto and Grace Pinto — in the September 8 murder of the Class 2 student, who was found with his throat slit outside the school toilet.

An official of the Gurgaon police said that a member of the special investigation team (SIT) went to Mumbai and served the summon notice to the Pintos, who are based there.

Sources in the police department, meanwhile, said that if the Pintos did not cooperate in the investigation, then they can be arrested.

On September 14, the trio had approached the Bombay high court seeking anticipatory bail, which was rejected.

The Haryana government has already decided to transfer the murder case to the CBI, as demanded by the victim’s family.

In a letter to the Centre, the state government said that the CBI should probe all aspects of the case, including conspiracies and any abetment.

Parents of a number of other students of the school had earlier demanded a CBI inquiry in the murder case and stricter legal provisions be slapped on the management for the murder.

Ashok Kumar, a 42-year-old bus conductor, was arrested as the main suspect in the case after publicly confessing to allegedly slitting the throat of the student after trying to sexually abuse him inside the toilet of the school.