GURUGRAM: It was on his demand that the probe into his son Pradhyumn’s murder was handed over to the CBI by the Haryana government. Exactly two months after the killing, when the investigation saw a stunning twist with a Class 11 student being identified as the prime suspect+ , Barun Thakur said he was finally happy with the investigation.
The 16-year-old suspect, he said, must now be tried as an adult. “From Day 1, I had serious doubts about bus conductor Ashok Kumar being the murderer,” the father of the murdered Ryan International School student told TOI on Wednesday. “The teenager apprehended by CBI should be tried as an adult,” he added, adding only a criminal mind could have carried out this crime. Barun said if the teenager is tried as a juvenile, the school should also be prosecuted. “I don’t buy this theory that he committed the murder to postpone exams,” he said.
Pradhyumn’s mother Jyoti Thakur said, “We were demanding a CBI probe for exactly this reason. We were not satisfied with Gurgaon police’s probe.” She also said she wanted to confront the accused. “We don’t know who this kid is. Perhaps Pradhyumn knew him as a student of the same school. I want to ask him why he killed my son,” she said.
CBI officers said+ the accused student is a little older than 16. His family and lawyer were evasive when aksed about his age. Experts said the Juvenile Justice Board will decide whether he’ll face trial as an adult or a minor. “As the CBI has produced him before the juvenile court, he will be treated as one, till the Juvenile Justice Board decides to treat him as an adult,” said advocate S S Chouhan, adding, “CBI will have to prove he’s above 16 years, and was capable of committing the crime on his own.”
Advocate Harish Malhotra said if CBI managed to prove the teenager is above 16, he will face trial as an adult. “A Class XI student or a person above 16 years is capable of committing a heinous offence,” said Malhotra.
He added that a minor can be produced before juvenile court+ and later made to face trail as an adult, but it’s very difficult to produce a teenager before an adult court and later treat him as juvenile. “If the teenager gets convicted as a juvenile, he can be sent to a correction home for a maximum of three years,” said Malhotra.
Parliament passed an amendment to change the law to allow juveniles aged between 16 and 18 accused in heinous crimes to be tried as adults after national outrage over Nirbhaya’s gang-rape and murder in Delhi in 2012 in which one of her attackers was a minor.
Bureau Report
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