Gurugram school murder: Supreme Court reserves verdict on plea seeking bail cancellation to Ryan group trustees

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on a plea of the father of seven-year old boy, who was found dead in a Gurugram school, seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail granted to three trustees of the Ryan International Group. A bench of Justices RK Agrawal and AM Sapre reserved its verdict and said it will pass order on 11 December. During the hearing, advocate Sushil Tekriwal, appearing for the father of the victim, said the grant of anticipatory bail to the trustees of the group which runs the school by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana was absolutely “illegal”, “unwarranted”, “unconstitutional” and “erroneous”. He said the murder of the Class II student had taken place in the campus of Ryan International School and hence the order of the high court should be set aside. [caption id=“attachment_4243697” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Supreme Court of India. AP[/caption] Tekriwal said the present case was rarest in nature keeping in view the manner in which the boy was killed. Advocate Sandeep Kapur, appearing for Ryan Pinto, Grace Pinto and AF Pinto, said the trustees were never directly involved in the administration of each school and only took policy decisions. “CBI was looking into the conspiracy angle for the murder of the boy in the school but has not found any evidence regarding the involvement of the respondents,” he said. Kapur said that merely on suspicion, a person cannot be arrested and put behind bars when he is in no manner related to an offence. He said the school authority and its management was fully cooperating with CBI in the matter and intended to help the investigating agency reach a conclusion regarding the commission of murder of the student inside the school. Kapur said recently the CBI has arrested a student of the school against whom it has collected evidence regarding commission of the crime. “The case and the plea of the CBI against the petitioners (Pintos) is same as it was on the date of passing of order granting anticipatory bail and no new plea or evidence has come on file of investigating agency connecting the petitioners with the crime in this case,” he said. The seven-year-old was found with his throat slit in the school washroom in Gurugram on 8 September. School bus conductor Ashok Kumar was earlier arrested by Haryana Police in connection with the crime. He was recently granted bail by a lower court. The case was transferred to the CBI and the agency had apprehended a Class 11 student in connection with the killing. Earlier, the apex court had agreed to hear the appeal seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail granted by the high court to three trustees of the group. The high court had on 21 November granted anticipatory bail to Ryan International Group CEO Ryan Pinto and his parents—founding chairman Augustine Pinto and managing director Grace Pinto, in connection with the murder.