Lawyer claims accused in Ryan murder confessed under duress

GURUGRAM: The lawyer defending Ashok Kumar, the main accused in the murder of seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur in a school in Gurugram, has alleged this his client was injected with sedatives and tortured mercilessly prior to his confession.

Advocate Mohit Verma also claimed that the police threatened Kumar and his family of dire consequences if Kumar did not own up to the murder.

The Rohtak-based lawyer also said that it was on the repeated orders of the caretaker Principal of Ryan International School, where the boy was found, that Kumar's shirt was stained with Pradhyuman's blood.

Verma said that on the request of the school management, Kumar had helped carry Pradyuman's body to the Wagon–R car, from where he was taken to the hospital.

"Based on my interaction, I can make out make out that he is speaking truth and not concealing the facts. Had he been guilty, he would have fled the spot, but he stayed there. Because he is financially weak, he is being framed so that the big fish involved in the case can get away," said Verma.

"His body is completely swollen. He is not being kept well in the prison and is repeatedly being beaten. How can a person who has two young sons commit this heinous act," said Mamta, the wife of the accused.