Ryan case: Counsel of accused student files second bail application

Gurgaon, Dec 21: The counsel of the 16-year-old student accused of killing a boy at the Ryan International School filed a second bail application in a sessions court here, a day after the Juvenile Justice Board decided to try him as an adult in the case.

The board had earlier rejected the bail plea of the class 11 Ryan International School student, charged with killing Pradhuman Thakur, a class 2 student of the same school, in the school premises on September 8. Yesterday, the JJB had passed the order on a plea that the accused teenager should not be treated as a juvenile.

The defense counsel, Sandeep Aneja, filed the second bail application this time to give some relief to his client after his first bail plea was rejected by the JJB on December 15 on the ground of scientific, physiological, psychological and behavioral reports.

"Under the JJB Act 10 (5), police or any authority apprehended a juvenile under any criminal charges, it should file charge sheet within one month. In this case, the CBI has failed to do so before the JJB and this was our main point in the bail application this time," Aneja said.

"The age of my client is 16-and-a-half-years-old and he is entitled to get bail until his age will not cross 21 years," he said. The board set up a committee which included a psychologist from the PGI, Rohtak for an expert opinion on the accused, who was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month. However, prosecution counsel Sushil Tekriwal said he would oppose the bail application in the sessions court.

"We are hoping the court will also reject it this time as the JJB did," Tekriwal said. Pradhuman was found with his throat slit in the school's washroom. The Gurgaon Police had said the crime was committed by a school bus conductor, which the CBI later refuted.

The CBI claimed the teenager had killed Pradhuman in a bid to get the school closed so that a scheduled parent- teacher meeting and an examination could be deferred.

PTI