Pradyuman murder: Suspended Ryan International school principal joins another branch

Gurugram: Neerja Batra, the acting principal of Ryan International School, where seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was brutally murdered in a toilet, has been posted as a teacher at Sector 40 branch.

The Ryan International administration had suspended Bartra after angry parents and locals had gathered outside the school premises and staged protest demanding a CBI probe into the gruesome murder.

Pradyuman was found dead with his throat slit in the washroom of Ryan International school in Bhondsi area on Sohna Road near here on September 8.

Meanwhile, Pradyuman's father Varun Thakur questioned the school administration on its move to reinstate the principal.

"How can you reinstate the principal who failed to fulfill her responsibility? What is the meaning of suspension then," the aggrieved father said.

Police have alleged that 42-year-old bus conductor Ashok Kumar killed the Class II student with a knife after the boy resisted an attempt to sodomise him. Kumar has been arrested.

The case has snowballed into a major national issue concerning safety and security of children in private schools, with vociferous protests by parents and activists outside the Ryan schools in several states including Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

The post-mortem report of seven-year-old Pradyuman has ruled out sexual assault even as the parent of another schoolchild claimed the crime scene was tampered with even though he had cautioned otherwise.

Bus driver Saurabh Raghav has said the knife used in the killing was not kept in the bus tool box, as claimed by accused conductor Ashok Kumar, adding that police pressurised him also to admit to being an accomplice in the crime.

Varun Thakur said there were "too many loopholes" in the police theory and the school management's stand on the murder.