Ryan school murder: Cops who framed wrong accused get bail
A CBI Special Magistrate in Panchkula today granted regular bail to four Haryana Police personnel, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), in the high-profile case of framing a school bus conductor in the 2017 Ryan International School murder incident.
Case background
– A 7-year-old student was found murdered inside a toilet of Ryan International School, Gurugram, on September 8, 2017
– Ashok Kumar, a school bus conductor, was arrested the same day by Haryana Police and allegedly tortured him to confess the crime
– The CBI later arrested a senior student, revealing he had committed the crime to postpone a parent-teacher meeting
– In its 2021 chargesheet, the CBI accused four Haryana Police personnel of giving Ashok electric shocks and injections, threatening him with an encounter
The accused — DSP Birem Singh, Inspector Narinder Khatana, Inspector Shamsher Singh (then a Sub-Inspector), and Exemptee Sub-Inspector Subhash Chand — appeared before the CBI court and furnished their bail bonds. They had earlier secured anticipatory bail from the CBI Special Court yesterday.
Their counsels, SPS Parmar and Abhishek Singh Rana, submitted that since the investigation was complete and a chargesheet had already been filed, custodial interrogation was not required. “There is no purpose to send the accused to jail," they argued.
The four officers had been summoned by the CBI court in its previous hearing held on June 13.
The CBI filed a chargesheet in 2021 against the four officers, accusing them of torturing school bus conductor Ashok Kumar to extract a false confession in the murder of a 7-year-old boy at Ryan International School, Gurugram.
The child was found murdered inside a school toilet on September 8, 2017. The real culprit — a senior student — was arrested later by the CBI. He had allegedly committed the murder to get a parent-teacher meeting postponed.
The chargesheet alleged that the officers gave Ashok “electric shocks", administered injections, and physically tortured him, even threatening to kill him in an encounter.
Ashok told the CBI that he had been framed under extreme duress.
A medical officer from Civil Hospital, Sohna, Dr Praveen Yadav, who examined Ashok on September 9, 2017, told the CBI: “His walk was not normal and he was taking the support of police officials while moving.”
The CBI found that seizure memos were prepared on the same day of the murder, titled as ‘Government vs Ashok’, even though Ashok’s name wasn’t mentioned in the FIR, nor had he been examined or arrested by that time.
Ashok Kumar was later discharged from the case after the CBI concluded he had no role in the murder.
Haryana Tribune