Ryan school murder: Pradyuman was lying on corridor, not inside washroom, claims gardener

Pic Courtesy: IANS

New Delhi: Seven-year-old Pradyuman was found dead with his throat slit in the washroom of Ryan International school in Bhondsi area on Sohna Road near Gurgaon on September 8.

Here are the latest updates:

- Entire teaching staff of Ryan International School called inside school premises for interrogation: Media report

- Bombay High Court adjourns hearing till Thursday in the anticipatory bail plea filed by Ryan International School trustees over Class II student's murder at their Gurugram branch.

- Ryan International Group's northern zone head Francis Thomas sent to police remand till September 16. HR head sent to judicial custody till Sept 18.

- Transit anticipatory bail applications of AF Pinto, Grace Pinto and Ryan Pinto adjourned till Thursday.

- Ryan International Group's northern zone head Francis Thomas & branch (Bhondsi) coordinator produced in Sohna court.

- Harpal, working as a gardener at Ryan International School, tells Zee Media that Pradyuman was lying on the corridor and not inside the toilet as it was being claimed.

Harpal claims he saw the Class II student in a pool of blood when some students alerted him. The gardener further claims that a teacher named Anju was the first one to be alerted by the students.

The gardener also says that bus conductor Ashok, who is in judicial custody, was not present inside the washroom, and he entered the crime scene from an entrance near the water cooler.

When asked to comment on Ashok's first reaction after seeing the child lying on the corridor, Harpal says the accused was calm and composed with no blood stain on his clothes.

- The father of the seven-year-old boy murdered at the Ryan International School in Gurgaon filed an application on Wednesday in the Bombay High Court seeking dismissal of the pre-arrest bail pleas of the trustees of Ryan International Group.

- Forensic Science Laboratory members reach Ryan International School.

- Transit anticipatory bail applications of AF Pinto, Grace Pinto and Ryan Pinto to be heard at 3 PM in Bombay High Court.

- SC agrees to hear on Monday plea of Francis Thomas, a Ryan Group official, alleging that bar has restrained lawyers from representing accused.

- Tulsi alleges that the bar bodies at Sohna and Gurgaon in Haryana have asked their member lawyers not to represent any person or accused in the brutal murder of seven-year-old Pradyuman.

- KTS Tulsi, representing the school management requested SC to transfer case out of Haryana to Delhi's Saket Court.

- Ryan International School official moves Supreme Court seeking transfer of boy murder case outside local court at Sohna, Haryana. 

- DNA samples of accused bus conductor sent to Karnal lab for testing.

- SIT sources told PTI that the investigating team suspects involvement of a third person, who may have escaped from one of the windows of the toilet which has broken window and is located on the ground floor.

Maneka Gandhi and Javadekar will hold a meet with officials of the ministries of Women and Child Development and Human Resource Development as well as representative of the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), CBSE, NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

The ministries are expected to develop a set of guidelines and protocols for schools to ensure that children are "protected from any kind of abuse or physical and mental harm.

HC to hear Ryan trustees' bail plea

Bombay High Court will resume its hearing on an anticipatory transit bail application filed by the trustees of Ryan International Schools in the case of the death of Pradyuman in their Gurugram branch. The HC on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to Ryan International Group's founding chairman and manging director till Wednesday.

'Gurgaon schoolboy not sexually assaulted'

The post-mortem report of seven-year-old kid has ruled out sexual assault. The doctor who conducted the post-mortem on Tuesday had confirmned that Pradyuman died of excessive bleeding.

Dr Deepak Mathur, who conducted the post mortem, also said there were two cuts on the boy's body and a nerve was slashed due to which he could not cry for help when he was attacked.

"The second point that came out in the report is that the child died due to excessive bleeding. There was no sexual assault on the minor and no semen marks were found on his school dress," he said.

Fact-finding committee report

The fact-finding committee, constituted by the Gurgaon district administration has detected lapses on the part of the school such as broken window, ill-equipped fire extinguishers, common toilets, no police verification of conductors and drivers and other ground staff, broken boundary wall and low quality CCTV without having wide-angle facilities, students' toilets without guard.

Haryana Police questions Ryan staffers in Mumbai

A two-member team of the Haryana Police on Tuesday questioned a few staffers at Ryan International School's Kandivali headquarters in Mumbai in the wake of the murder of a seven-year-old boy in its Gurugram branch.

However, none of St Xavier's Educational Trust members -- including Augustine F Pinto, his wife Grace Pinto and their son Ryan Pinto -- were available at the school.

Haryana Police recorded statements of two students in connection with the murder of their schoolmate.

"The SIT recorded statements of two students who went to change their Taekwondo dress inside the toilet at the time of the crime. The team is also questioning the suspended school principal Neerja Batra and two other female teachers," a senior police officer said.

Schoolbus conductor in judicial custody

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

"That is why we have moved the Supreme Court for a CBI inquiry," Thakur said.

The apex court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre, the CBI and the Haryana government on a plea by Thakur.

Schoolbus conductor Ashok Kumar, who allegedly tried to sexually assault the class II student in a toilet and slit his throat with a knife when he resisted last Friday last, was sent to judicial custody till September 17.

As police are working to crack the case, Subhash Garg, a businessman, claimed the conductor carried the injured boy to a car to be shifted to a hospital on the orders of two teachers.

Garg said he had gone to deposit his son's fees on Friday and was standing at the main reception in the school when he heard some commotion.

Garg said he rushed along with others to the crime spot after hearing the screams of the staff and students. He said accused bus conductor Ashok Kumar, 42, carried the child to a vehicle to be shifted to a private hospital.

"There was blood in the toilet and nearby corridor. Blood stains were also visible on walls of the toilet and the corridor," Garg said.

"Two private security guards were deployed near the corridor. I asked the school staff not to clean the blood till police arrived there, but the school sweeper wiped clean the corridor nevertheless," he claimed.

"The accused also washed his blood-stained clothes, ignoring my warning not to do so," Garg added.

School bus driver claims Kumar being made a scapegoat

The school bus' driver Saurabh Raghav claimed Kumar was made a scapegoat by the school teachers.

Raghav 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.