Kumar, two senior school officials sent to prison

Gurugram: The special court convened in the District courts of Gurugram on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Ashok Kumar , the 42-year-old bus conductor who is the prime accused for brutally murdering 7-year–old Pradhyuman Thakur on September 8.

It also rejected the bail plea of senior officials of Ryan group of institutions, namely Francis Thomas, the regional head and Jeyus Thomas, head of the human resources. The judicial remand of the three has now been extended till September 29 till the next hearing.

It was expected that the court may show leniency to Ashok after his lawyer Mohit Verma asserted that he was injected with sedatives and was tortured mercilessly prior to his confession. He also claimed that the police threatened him of dire consequences to his family if he did not own up to the crime.

The Rohtak-based lawyer also mentioned that it was on the repeated orders by care taker Principal that his shirt was stained with Pradhyuman's blood. He said on the request of the school management, he had helped the deceased carrying to the Wagon–R from where he was taken to the hospital.

After the report by the three member special investigating team (SIT) indicted its school in Bhondsi of glaring lapses, the Gurugram police arrested two senior officials under the juvenile justice act. Claiming that the accused were responsible for tampering with evidences at the crime spot, the prosecution counsels demanded addition of Section -201 of the Indian Penal Code.

In claiming that they may not have been a fair trial, the two approached the higher judiciary for transferring the case out of Haryana.