Conductor’s bail plea to be heard on Nov 20

GURGAON: A Gurgaon special court on Thursday adjourned till November 20 the bail plea hearing of bus conductor Ashok Kumar, the first suspect in the murder of an eight-year-old boy at Ryan International School, Bhondsi .

Kumar was arrested by the Gurgaon police for the killing of Class 2 student Pradhyumn Thakur. The CBI, which took over investigations of the case, on November 7 had apprehended a Class 11 student of the school and said that the murder was carried out by him, while ruling out the sexual assault angle.

In its report submitted to the court, the CBI mentioned the agency has not given a clean chit to the bus conductor but has also not found his involvement in the case so far. “So far no incriminating evidence has been found regarding the involvement of Kumar,” the CBI report said.

The CBI has kept its stand neutral by stating that the court may pass an appropriate order on the bail application of Kumar “as deemed fit and proper in the interest of justice”.

The lawyer for the victim’s father, Barun Chadra Thakur, however, opposed the bail by stating that the CBI has not given him a clean chit and the murder was heinous and rarest of rare.

“The case is still at premature stage and granting bail to Kumar will give him an opportunity to tamper the evidence,” said Sushil Tekriwal, Thakur’s counsel.

Tekriwal also argued to shift the case to the CBI special court , Panchkula. He said since the CBI had ruled out the sexual assault and the postmortem report also did not point at any such act, POCSO Act did not seem to sustain so the case should be shifted to the CBI special court.

The entire proceeding was in-camera and the CBI team also showed two CCTV footages which had captured the movement of the victim, Kumar, and the juvenile accused. All three were seen entering, but the exit was not clear. Additional district and sessions judge Rajni Yadav during the hearing asked CBI officials to do their home work and asked them to collect the DNA report which should have been in their records by now. Yadav asked them to get more material and evidence.

The court also asked CBI to produce the notification regarding the jurisdiction of the case.

Mohit Verma, Kumar’s lawyer, said there was no evidence to prove his client guilty. The CBI will submit their complete findings and evidences by November 20. Kumar will be produced to court through video conferencing on Friday when his judicial custody ends.