Murder of Pradyuman Thakur

According to police reports, Pradyuman Thakur was murdered within half an hour after he and his elder sister were dropped off by their father at the school they attended. Their father reached the school at 7:55 AM and claimed that he received a call at approximately 8:10 AM regarding Pradyuman's condition; the child had been rushed to hospital by school staff. Various local media reports claimed the school's management had destroyed, or attempted to hide evidence before the police arrived. Local media also claimed management allegedly asked students to wash away spilled blood and other evidence, so that fingerprints and other marks could not be identified.[2]

Thakur was slashed in the neck twice with a knife; doctors said he died two minutes after the attack from excessive bleeding. Reports stated that he was unable to cry for help due to his severed windpipe. School authorities claimed the child was alive when he was taken to hospital. Witnesses supported this claim saying they saw two teachers order one of the school's bus conductors, Ashok Kumar, to carry the child in a car to the hospital.[2] It was substantiated the conductor carrying the child hid the blood marks on his shirt.

Within minutes of police questioning, Ashok Kumar allegedly confessed while Saurabh Raghav, another school bus driver, claimed that he was a scapegoat. Gurgaon police informed the district court that the crime scene had been tampered with, and they suspected a third person was involved. On 21 September 2017, senior police officer Biren Singh stated: "Only Ashok has murdered Pradyuman, no other person is involved."[2] However, Kumar later told the media through his lawyer that he was forced to confess because of police torture techniques.

The murder triggered massive protests by parents at various Ryan International Schools across India. The incident shocked the public and made headlines in leading newspapers across the globe. The police and government sprung into urgent action to take the necessary measures to secure schools. Union Ministers Maneka Gandhi and Prakash Javadekar were scheduled to meet on 13 September 2017 to discuss safety measures, but the meeting was postponed. The Ryan International Group's founding chairman, Augustine Pinto, his wife, and managing director, Grace Pinto, were both granted protection from arrest by a court until 13 September 2017. Their son, the group's chief executive officer, Ryan Pinto, also applied for anticipatory bail in Bombay High Court, and was given permission to go abroad in late January. Ryan International School management made a motion to the Supreme Court to transfer the case outside Haryana to ensure a fair trial. The court began hearing the case on 18 September 2017.[2]

On 11 September 2017, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Central Government, the Haryana Government, and the Central Board of Secondary Education after the child's father, Varun Thakur, petitioned for a CBI probe into his son's murder and into the safety guidelines for children in school. Following this, two officials of the Ryan International School were arrested after an investigation pointed out serious security lapses. For example, most of the school's closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras were not working, and there was no CCTV camera in the area of the incident.

Gurgaon's Ryan International School principal was reinstated at another branch after a short suspension. Neerja Batra was placed as a teacher at a school in Gurgaon's sector 40 by Deputy Commissioner, Vinay Pratap Singh. This relocation by the administration angered Thakur's parents who called the principal "irresponsible". Since Batra revealed the insufficient security, and had no financial resources to deal with the situation herself, she was deemed not responsible for the murder of the young child.

Due to the incident, many students have come forward with stories of violence conducted by their teachers and principal. As a result, many measures have been taken by the Ryan Group, such as: metal detectors in school, female security guards, bathrooms not being open between school periods, and parents not being allowed to enter the school during school hours.

Kumar confessed to the police that he committed the murder, but later claimed he was coerced and did not commit it.[3] Kumar has since been granted bail.[4] A police force was deployed inside and around the school in response to the anxious parents who barged into the school and began throwing furniture as well as breaking glass awards cases.[5] The police used lathis or batons to control protesters who set fire to a liquor store outside Gurgaon's Ryan International School.[6] After the efforts of the victim's parents, and intervention by the Supreme Court of India, the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the probe of the case on 23 September 2017.[1]

On 8 November 2017, the CBI, which was investigating the case, arrested a class XI student aged 16 from Ryan International School for the Thakur's murder. CBI said the boy killed Pradyuman to postpone an examination and parents' meeting in the school. CBI in its remand application for the custody of the accused stated the boy confessed in front of his father, but retracted the confession which he said was coerced. The investigation is still in progress.[7]

Chief minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, assured the strictest action would be taken against the criminal.[8] He also visited Thakur's home on 15 September 2017, one week after the murder. The CBI also came to know that the class XI student had searched for different kinds of poisons that can be dangerous. The student also searched how to remove fingerprints from a weapon. Different sources threw light on the accused's aggressive and bullying nature toward his classmates, which he feared would be discussed during the parents meeting at school.

The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) set up a committee which included a psychologist from the Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS, Rohtak) for an expert opinion on the accused. [9] The panel submitted its report in two sealed envelopes. The JJB noted the accused was mature enough to recognise the consequences of his actions.

On 20 December 2017, the JJB declared that the accused boy will be treated as an adult and undergo a regular trial in court.[10] The board said if the accused is convicted, he will have to stay in a correctional home until he is 21 years old and then be transferred to a jail. This action was taken by the board under the Juvenile Justice Act 2015. This allows the court to treat a juvenile in the 16–18 age group involved in a heinous offence (that carries a punishment of more than seven years) as an adult. The family of the accused filed an appeal against this order of the JJB, which the CBI opposed in a written submission before court.

On 28 February 2018, the Special Child court acquitted the bus driver Kumar as requested by CBI, since no evidence was found of his involvement in any way in the murder.[11]

A book, The Mysterious Killer of Class 2 Student, explores entire investigation. It contradicts the CBI theory and concludes the killer was a double-edged door closure arm and the entire incident was an accident and not a murder.[12]

• Juvenile Delinquency
• Crime in India
• Child murder
• Child abuse

• "A Big Little Murder: Ep 1: Death of a School Boy"
• "A Big Little Murder: Ep 2: Arrest of a School Boy"