Gurugram school murder: Parents want CBI probe into killing

Charge sheet in student’s murder will be ready in a week: Minister

Demonstrators protest outside Ryan International School as they demand action against the school, in Gurugram on Saturday.

Hundreds of angry parents staged a protest outside the Ryan International School here on Sunday, demanding a CBI probe into the murder of a seven-year-old school boy, a demand the Haryana government appeared willing to accept.

The boy, a student of Class 2, was found dead with his throat slit in the school’s wash room on Friday.

A liquor shop, situated just 50 metres from the school, was set ablaze and some of the demonstrators threw liquor bottles inside the school premises to vent their ire against the school management, the police said. The protesters alleged that drivers and conductors of the school buses often consumed alcohol from the shop. A bus conductor has been arrested in connection with the case that has triggered a major outrage. Police said Kumar, the conductor, was waiting inside the toilet to sexually assault any student who came in.

20 protesters detained

The protesters wanted the school to be closed until a CBI probe was ordered.

Police used batons to quell the protest and detained 20 protesters. Cameras of some photojournalists were damaged during the protest.

Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said the charge sheet in the case would be ready within a week.

“We have directed the Gurgaon Police to book the owner of Ryan International School, Albert Pinto, under section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Punishment) Act, 2015, for cruelty to a child meted out by the custodian, in the charge sheet to be submitted in the court within 7 days,” he told reporters here. “This is the minimum time in such cases,” he said. “However, if the child’s parents still feel they are not satisfied, then we can get the case investigated by any agency, including the CBI.”

The Minister said “some loopholes in the security” were visible in the case and the toilet window was also found to have been broken from the inside.

“We held a meeting today in which the demand to derecognise the school came up. But we also had to take into account that 1,200 students are studying there. Parents were against this step,” he said.

He said the liquor vend near the school had been ordered to shut down permanently.

Meanwhile, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said a CBI probe should be ordered.