Seven-year-old Pradyuman had been found with his throat slit outside a school toilet on September 8
The CBI suffered a jolt as the owner of a shop from where Ryan International School's 16-year-old student is suspected to have procured a knife to kill his Class II junior has failed to identify him.
This left the CBI with no option but to buy seven similar knives that cost Rs 100 to establish its claims. Shop owner Pawan would have become a crucial witness if he had identified the juvenile. The agency alleges that the suspect himself disclosed the shop location. The CBI apprehended the Class XI student late on Tuesday, while school bus conductor Ashok Kumar is in jail after being arrested by the Haryana police for killing Pradyuman Thakur on the campus two months ago.
The agency has planned a psychological examination of the student after reconstructing the crime to know how he carried out the murder. Seven-year-old Pradyuman had been found with his throat slit outside a school toilet on September 8
The CBI is also focusing on a second juvenile student who had raised an alarm about the murder. His statement has been recorded, but he has not been confronted with the suspect who is weak in studies and allegedly committed the crime to have school exams and a parent-teacher meeting postponed, said sources.
The agency is probing whether school staff and the Haryana police are involved in destruction of evidence. The Haryana police had claimed to have found a blood-stained knife from the tool box of a school bus driven by Kumar. The agency, however, said it has found the actual knife used in the crime and thrown in a commode.
The CBI, within six days of taking over the case on September 22, identified the juvenile as an accused and even went to his residence and collected "crucial materials". Sources said that the agency collected the clothes which the accused was wearing on the day of the crime.
Teachers had noticed the suspect — reportedly under psychiatric evaluation over anger issues — bringing a knife to school four days before the murder, but the Gurugram police did not give any importance to this crucial bit of information, sources said. He confessed to his crime, in front of his father and an independent witness, the agency has told a juvenile court.
CCTV footage, in which the Class XI student was seen near the toilet minutes before the murder, was also ignored by state police. Pradyuman's father Barun Thakur, an MNC executive in Delhi, said the family always suspected that the case was being mishandled and the bus conductor was arrested in a hurry. "We had been telling the police to question other people but they were focused on the bus conductor," he said.
The suspect student was produced before the juvenile court on Wednesday which allowed the police to question him. His custody will get over on Saturday when he will be produced before the juvenile court.
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 "Ryan International School")
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