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Gurgaon school murder: CBI names juvenile main accused in charge sheet, makes bus conductor prime witness
The CBI had demolished the Gurgaon police’s theory of the conductor’s involvement and apprehended a 16-year-old student in the case on November 7.
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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday gave a clean chit to bus conductor Ashok Kumar (42) who was earlier arrested as the main accused in the murder of a Class 2 student of a private school on September 8 last year while underlining a juvenile nabbed last November as the main accused.
In the charge sheet filed in the Gurgaon district court in connection with the murder, the agency has made Kumar one of the prime witnesses in the case
The CBI had demolished the Gurgaon police’s theory of the conductor’s involvement and apprehended a 16-year-old student in the case on November 7.
The probe agency which had named the juvenile as main accused in the case, said in the charge sheet that “there is sufficient evidence for prosecution” against the accused for the murder.
The victim was found with his throat slit outside a school toilet on the morning of September 8. Monday was the last day of the 90-day period for filing the charge sheet.
Giving a clean chit to Kumar, the CBI charge sheet said, “During investigation conducted by CBI, no evidence has come on record to prove involvement of conductor Ashok Kumar in the instant case”.
The agency appealed the court that “since no evidence has been found by the CBI against conductor Ashok Kumar for his involvement in any manner in the murder …..the court may kindly discharge Ashok Kumar in the case”.
Gurgaon police had booked Kumar even under Pocso Act accusing him of sexual assault on the victim before killing him. Kumar spent about 70 days in jail.
“The CBI has given a clean chit to my client and we will file an application for his discharge”, Kumar’s counsel Mohit Verma said.
The charge sheet includes a list of nearly 50 witnesses (11 of them prime), evidences, forensic expert report and documents from the school. A supplementary charge sheet will be filed within a month.
The family members of the victim and their counsel expressed disappointment after receiving the copy of the charge sheet. They said they had expected a strong charge sheet but the one filed ‘seems very weak’.
“The charge sheet is disappointing and I was expecting a strong documentation by the CBI including list of evidences,” said the father of the victim.
“They have not named the school management, owners of the school and the Gurgaon police SIT officials who are also culprits in the case. Giving clean chit to Ashok does not speak about the foul play by the cops. Why were they not found guilty?” said Sushil Tekriwal, counsel of the victim’s family.
Tekriwal also said the prosecution would spare no effort to get justice for the victim. “The all round efforts to ensure proving all charges as contained in the charge sheet against all the accused in the court of law shall now be made no stone will be left unturned. The prayer for fast-tracking the case now shall be made so that the conviction, in this case, becomes a landmark precedence,” he said.
On November 7, the CBI had apprehended a 16-year-old student who initially confessed to the crime but later retracted.
On December 20, the juvenile justice board (JJB) delivered the verdict to try the juvenile as an adult. The verdict read the offence allegedly committed by the accused was “heinous”. Transferring the case to the special children’s court, Gurgaon, the board held that the circumstances show the teenager was “mature enough” to understand the consequences of his alleged act and to think of ways to escape from lawful punishment.
The bail application of the juvenile was also rejected on Monday.
