Ryan case: Role of second student under CBI lens

NEW DELHI:

As it investigates a Class 11 student accused of slitting the throat of seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur at the Ryan International School in Gurgaon, the CBI is also examining the role of another student.

A second student who went with the accused 16-year-old and informed a gardener about Pradyuman’s bloodsoaked body in the toilet is being investigated, sources say.

The two boys went together to the gardener first, and then to their PT teacher.

“The CBI is verifying how the second boy came to know. It is part of trying to establish the sequence of events,” sources say. The boy was a witness for the police.

To recreate the crime and make sure every gap is filled, the CBI will take the detained student to the school.

On Thursday he was questioned for several hours and then taken to knife shops to establish where and when the murder weapon may have been bought.

Investigators have told a Juvenile Court that the teen confessed to the crime in the presence of his father, independent witnesses and a social welfare board member. The motive, apparently, was to delay an exam, but the CBI is yet to find clinching evidence.

On September 8, Pradyuman, a Class 2 student, was found murdered some 15 minutes after he and his older sister were dropped off by their father in the morning. Seven hours later, the Haryana police told the media that the killer was school bus conductor Ashok Kumar and he murdered Pradyuman after trying to assault him sexually. They also claimed that they had recovered the knife from him, but CBI sources suspect it is not true.