Ryan school murder: Gurgaon police’s urgency to pin blame on one man led to probe gaffe

Gurgaon school murder: Experts say Gurgaon police should have expanded investigation and rounded up suspects, including juvenile; argue motive claimed by CBI still weak for conviction.

An undue haste, coupled with the urgency to pin the blame on one man, bus conductor Ashok Kumar, led to major gaffes in the probe conducted by the Gurgaon Police into the killing of an 8-year-old boy inside Ryan International School, Bhondsi.

The CBI had on Tuesday apprehended a Class 11 student of Ryan International School, Bhondsi, for allegedly killing 8-yr-old Pradhyumn Thakur. (PTI)

The police obtained CCTV footage but did not cast their doubts on all the persons visible in the footage.

Instead, they pinned the blame on Kumar merely on circumstantial evidence without forensic proof and arrested him based on confessions made by the suspect in front of the media and in custody. The police had rested its case on weak grounds, said experts close to the investigation.

Another major gap in the investigation was the failure of the police to get judicial confession and the force’s reliance on what the accused had admitted in public or in custody.

“The confession on which police was relying is not admissible in a court of law. The police should have expanded its investigation and rounded up all the suspects, including the juvenile,” said a legal expert.

Advocate Rajiv Kaushik, who practices in Gurgaon, stated that since this case was based on circumstantial evidence, it was essential for the police and the SIT to establish a strong motive for the murder, which did not happen in the case.

“The motive of murder, as claimed by the Gurgaon police and even CBI, is very weak and it will not be enough to convict the accused,” he added.

Legal experts said that though bus conductor Kumar’s arrest was hasty and wrong, no one will compensate the man even if the CBI gives him a clean chit.

“The motive is not the only ingredient for proving a heinous crime. A court needs more evidence to convict a person. How did police judge the motive, preparation and subsequent conduct of Ashok Kumar and also the juvenile suspect in four hours also needs questioning”, said advocate Rajiv Kaushik.

Apart from that the police also needed to establish the sequence of events leading to the murder, find out how the weapon reached the spot, and what led to contamination of the scene, say experts.