Ryan International School murder case: CBI opposes bail plea of juvenile accused; court to hear matter on 6 January

The CBI on Friday opposed in a Gurugram court the bail plea of the 16-year-old student, accused of killing a seven-year-old boy, at the Ryan International school. Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu fixed the matter for 6 January for arguments on the appeal filed by the accused against an order of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) denying him bail. The probe agency opposed the appeal in a written submission before the court. The court posted the matter for the next date after an adjournment was sought by the counsel for the accused. The JJB had on 20 December held that the 16-year-old boy would be tried as an adult and directed that he be produced before the Gurgaon sessions court on Friday. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 lowers the age of juveniles from 18 years to 16 years for heinous crimes like rape, murder and dacoity-cum-murder, which warrant at least seven years of imprisonment. However, the JJB first decides whether the crime committed has been “child-like” or was it committed in an “adult frame of mind”, following which the JJB orders the accused to be tried as juvenile or adult. The JJB had passed the order on a plea that the accused teenager should not be treated as a juvenile. If convicted, he will stay in a correctional home till he is 21-years old after which the court can shift him to a jail or grant him bail, it had said.   [caption id=“attachment_4224223” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A Class XI student has been apprehended in connection with the Pradhyuman Thakur murder case. PTI[/caption] The board had earlier rejected the bail plea of the Class XI Ryan International School student, charged with killing Pradhuman Thakur, a Class II student of the same school, in the school premises on 8 September. On Wednesday, the JJB had passed the order on a plea that the accused teenager should not be treated as a juvenile . The defence counsel, Sandeep Aneja, filed a second bail application, this time to give relief to his client, after his first bail plea was rejected by the JJB on 15 December on grounds of scientific, physiological, psychological and behavioural reports. “Under the JJB Act 10 (5), police or any authority apprehended a juvenile under any criminal charges, it should file chargesheet within one month. In this case, the CBI has failed to do so before the JJB and this was our main point in the bail application this time,” Aneja said. “The age of my client is 16-and-a-half, and he is entitled to get bail until his age does not cross 21 years,” he said. The board set up a committee which included a psychologist from PGI, Rohtak, for an expert opinion on the accused, who was taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November. With inputs from PTI