Ryan school murder: Out on bail, bus conductor says police tortured him

Kumar said he was thankful to the family members of Pradhyumn as they believed that he was not the murderer. “I will visit them in a day or two,” he said.

Bus conductor Ashok Kumar, 42, was released from Bhondsi jail on Wednesday evening, a day after a special court in Gurgaon granted bail to him in the murder case of eight-year-old Pradhyumn Thakur.

42-year-old Ashok Kumar talks to the media after the release from Bhondsi jail on bail. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

Kumar, who was arrested by the Gurgaon police as the prime suspect in the Ryan International School murder on September 8, said he would initiate action against Gurgaon police for torturing him and falsely framing him in the case.

“I will discuss things with my lawyer, regarding filing a case against Gurgaon police. They tortured me to confess, which I never did. I will fight for justice,” Kumar told HT.

Kumar said he was thankful to the family members of Pradhyumn as they believed that he was not the murderer. “I will visit them in a day or two,” he said.

The police on Wednesday escorted Kumar out of the jail premises through a secondary exit as the main gate was swarmed by a battery of media people. Though, policemen offered to take Kumar away in a police van, his family members refused and escorted him away in a private vehicle instead.

A special court in Gurgaon had granted bail to the bus conductor on Tuesday on the grounds that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had no evidence against the 42-year-old.

Kumar on Wednesday was escorted away to the house of his cousin Anand Chopra, as his own residence was crowded by media persons.

Gurgaon Police arrested Kumar on September 8 hours after Pradhyumn Thakur, a Class 2 student of Ryan International School, Bhondsi, was found with his throat slit outside a toilet. Kumar was also booked under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act on charges of having tried to sexually assault the eight-year-old.

Later, the CBI, who had taken over the case, apprehended a Class 11 student of the same school on for the murder. The agency also ruled out the sexual assault angle.

After spending four days in police custody, Kumar was sent to the Bhondsi jail on September 12. Lawyers representing Kumar moved his bail application on November 10.

Relating the sequence of events on September 8, Kumar said he left home at 5:30am and reached the school at 6:10am.

“I still remember how the policemen whisked me away to the Bhondsi police station and started beating me up. There were five policemen, who also gave me electric shocks,” Kumar alleged.

“I was tortured several times. I cried in pain but they showed no mercy and kept insisting that I confess to the murder”, Kumar further alleged.

Commissioner of Police, Sandeep Khirwar, did not respond to calls and text messages for comments on allegations levelled by Kumar.

“It is a relief. I was sure from the start that he was innocent and framed in the case,” Kumar’s counsel Mohit Verma said.

The CBI, however, has not absolved Kumar in its report submitted to the Gurgaon special court on November 16. The agency said it had no incriminating evidence against Kumar but he was not being given a clean chit.