Ryan murder: Cops scrutinizing records to fix culpability of Ryan management

The police are specifically looking into repeated requisitions made by the local school staff to improve security measures, build toilets and other facilities to improve overall infrastructure.

In order to fix the culpability of school management in the murder of an eight-year-old student of Ryan International School in Bhondsi, the Gurgaon police is scrutinizing documents and seeking records to establish the jurisdiction and responsibility of the school management.

School officials at court. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The police are specifically looking into repeated requisitions made by the local school staff to improve security measures, build toilets and other facilities to improve overall infrastructure.

The eight-year-old student was found murdered outside the washroom of the Ryan International School on September 8. It has led to an uproar and angry parents across the country have called for action against not only the management but also the school owners.

“The team in Mumbai is seeking records and will inspect the documents to establish how the Ryan School system operates and determine who is responsible for the lapses and negligence in acting upon repeated requests that have been made over the years to the management,” said Sandeep Khirwar, Gurgaon police commissioner.

Khirwar also said that action against the middle management, including the regional head of the north India, and local administrator was taken after they were found responsible for lapses and charged under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act.

Although members of the Gurgaon police team have not met the members of Pinto family, officials said that they have started scrutinizing the documents and papers pertaining to the overall functioning of the school. The police also believe that the acting principal and staff of Ryan International School, Bhondsi, who is under fire, was not responsible for the incident but the management as a whole was culpable.

“The loopholes in the infrastructure, violation of rules prescribed by education department come under the domain of the civil administration but we will hold them accountable for negligence and lapses that led to the murder,” said Khirwar.

He added that two middle-level officials of the Ryan management were arrested because they were found responsible for lapses.

Grace Pinto and Augustine Pinto, the founders of Ryan School, have been granted protection from arrest by the Bombay high court.