CBI to probe suspect’s ‘innocence’ claim
NEWDELHI/GURGAON: The CBI will examine the claim made by accused Ashok Kumar that he has been framed in the Ryan murder case.
“During initial hearing in the Gurgaon court, my client had claimed that he is innocent and framed in the case,” Kumar’s lawyer, Mohit Verma, told Hindustan Times.
According to CBI sources, the conclusion drawn by the Gurgaon Police on the complicity of Kumar in the case and his counter-claim that he has been framed — both will be looked into during the course of investigation. The CBI will also record statements of all witnesses afresh in the case.
Kumar, a 42-year-old bus conductor, has been accused of killing an eight-year-old Ryan Inter- national School, Bhondsi, student after a failed sexual assault attempt. The class 2 student was found murdered with his throat slit in the school toilet on September 8. Kumar was arrested on the same day.
The boy’s family demanded a CBI probe in the case. After the Haryana government agreed, the formalities of transferring the probe from Gurgaon police to the CBI took more than week. Since Kumar was in the Gurgaon police’s custody for 13 days, the CBI got his custody for only one day. An accused can be remanded to police custody only for 14 days within 14 days of arrest.
During the one-day custody, the CBI took Kumar to the school campus where the crime scene was recreated for over an hour.
Gurgaon police sources said, Kumar along with gardener Harpal Singh, who is the key witness and also an initial suspect in the case, were asked to recreate the events that happened on the day of the murder.
The police sources added that both were initially questioned separately but later they were questioned together, and it was found some of their statements were not matching. The entire operation was videographed by the CBI team and later Singh was allowed to leave the school.
Later, Kumar was produced before the designated special judge who sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
CBI sources added that given their prior experience in the Aarushi murder case of Noida, the investigators are tight-lipped about what exactly Kumar revealed during his interrogation.
“We have to scrutinise voluminous records collected by the Gurgaon police during its probe. The case diary prepared by the Gurgaon police is being analysed. Two more accused — Francis Thomas and Jayesh Thomas — are still in our custody for another day. Our hands are full at the moment,” said a CBI investigator.