 "Ryan International murder: Juvenile retracts confession given to CBI, says he was beaten up and forced to confess")
In another twist to the Ryan International murder case, the juvenile who was accused of murdering Class II student Pradyuman Thakur has retracted the confession he had made before investigators, say media reports_._ On Monday, the accused told CBI officials and a legal-cum-probation officer appointed by the Juvenile Justice Board that the investigators had forced him to confess, according to Hindustan Times. He added that the investigators had beaten him and recorded the confession in their own words.
The report adds that legal experts say that a confession before a police officer does not hold any evidential value. However, if it “leads to the recovery of any article connected with the crime, the confession can have a little more credibility. But even then the investigating agency will have to prove the case against the accused beyond doubt,” said Karan Singh, a lawyer.
The accused also gave a different version of events from the one he had given earlier, said the report. He said that when he went to the washroom, he heard the screams of a boy who was vomiting blood. He rushed out and told a gardener, and then a teacher. Accused had earlier admitted involvement in the murder The CBI had earlier said that the accused
had admitted his involvement in Pradyuman’s murder. The CBI has asserted that after inspecting the crime scene, the CCTV footage, movement of students near the crime scene and questioning people in the school, it has identified and apprehended the accused. The accused, in the presence of his father, independent witnesses, and the welfare officer of the CBI, has admitted his involvement in Pradyuman’s murder, the agency said. [caption id=“attachment_4026315” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Ryan International School. PTI[/caption] The
detained student was reportedly suspected of having watched a pornographic clip in the morning, and on seeing Pradyuman in the school bathroom, he might have tried to sexually assault him when he entered it, minutes after he was dropped by his father. The autopsy, however, has
reportedly denied any sexual assault. The CBI had also said that the accused had looked up methods to remove fingerprints from the weapon (a knife) that he intended to use to commit murder, said a
Hindustan Times report. “Investigators suspect that after killing the student by slitting his throat, the accused deliberately threw the weapon, a knife which he procured a day before the murder from Sohna, in the commode of the toilet where the incident took place on 8 September,” a CBI source had said. CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal had said that the accused was weak in studies and “wanted to have the examination and parent-teacher meeting postponed”. Arrest of juvenile had been a surprise The CBI’s arrest of the juvenile had derailed the Haryana Police version of the gory crime which led to the arrest of a school bus conductor, Ashok Kumar. Pradyuman’s family had always insisted that the conductor was being framed. The stark discrepancy in the investigative lines of the CBI and the Gurugram Police had raised critical questions about how the latter operates.
The arrest had sparked theories about the botched investigation conducted by the Gurugram Police. Reports had suggested that the CBI may probe a possible Ryan International School-Gurugram Police nexus in the murder case. CNN-News18 had quoted CBI sources as saying that the police may have also tried to destroy the evidence.
Father of accused had made accusations of torture The father of the accused had reportedly alleged that the CBI was torturing his son — a claim strongly refuted by the investigating agency. “My son is being tortured, he was hung upside down and brutally thrashed. He is completely innocent,” Times Now had quoted the father as saying. With inputs from agencies
