Gurgaon: In a stunning twist in the murder of a seven-year-old in the toilet of
Ryan International School in Gurgaon in September, a senior student has
been detained by the CBI.
Sources
say a Class 11 student is being suspected in the murder of Pradyuman
Thakur, who was found with his throat slit on September 8. The student
was detained last evening and will be produced before the juvenile
board.
The student's father denied the charge. "They (CBI)
arrested my son last night. My son has been forced to confess to murder.
He has not committed the crime, he was the one who informed the
gardener and teachers."
The student was the first to spot Pradyuman's body. Sources say he is seen entering the washroom with the child.
The motive is not clear yet.
The
student had been questioned several times in the past few days and his
account kept changing, sources say. He allegedly confessed yesterday.
A school bus conductor had earlier been arrested and accused of the
killing that shocked the nation and triggered severe safety measures in
schools. The police had even extracted a confession from Ashok Kumar and
said that the boy had been killed for resisting sexual assault.
On
security footage, Pradyuman, a student of Class 2, was seen crawling
out of the bathroom after his throat had been slit. He collapsed next to
a wall, his blood pooling around him. His body was discovered around 8
am, not long after his father dropped him off.
Pradyuman's parents had accused the school of a cover-up and had alleged that the police had done a shoddy job. Under pressure from the parents, the Haryana government asked the CBI to investigate the murder.
