India: In a shocking confession, the school bus conductor who murdered the 7-year-old student inside the washroom of the Gurgaon-based Ryan International School, said that he murdered him because he objected to having sex with him.
Ashok Kumar, 42, is a resident of Ghamroj village in Gurgaon and has been working with Ryan International School for the past eight months.
Kumar confessed that he found the 7-year-old alone in the washroom, that encouraged him to attempt sexual assault. However, when the boy tired to escape, Kumar pulled him in the washroom and slit his throat.
He stabbed the child twice and washed the knife in the washroom and threw the same at the site of crime.
The body of a seven year old student with his throat slit was found inside the toilet of Ryan International School at Bhondsi in Gurgaon on Friday morning.
The student has been identified as Pradhuman Thakur, a grade 2 student. A knife has been recovered from the scene of the crime.
The father of Pradhuman, Vinod Chand Thakur, said, “It is a clear case of murder, don’t know what happened but I am sure its murder.”
“They cut my poor boy. The doctors told me the killer stabbed him twice. There was a big scar starting from his ear to the throat. His ear had been cut, and two flaps of skin exposed the insides of his throat. I never thought I would see my son in such a condition,” Vinod said.
“My son had told me that the bus conductor would use the bathrooms. Does the school not take into account this kind of gross misconduct? The bigger culprits are the school authorities who mint money like an industry,” he added.
School authorities have maintained they take security of their students with the utmost seriousness.
“There are many times when we undertake surprise checks. This was an unfortunate incident and we are cooperating with the police. We want the culprits to be brought to justice,” said Neerja Batra, the school head.
Reacting to the incident, parents damaged parts of the school building.
Police have detained three persons, including driver and conductor of the school bus, and a staff, in connection with the killing.
“The students alerted the teachers and the school management then informed police, who rushed him to Artemis Hospital. He was declared brought dead by doctors,” Ravinder Kumar, PRO Gurgaon Police, said.
A police team, including forensic experts, is probing the case and has collected blood samples and fingerprints from the scene. A knife with blood stains was also recovered from the spot, he said.
“We are investigating the case from all angles … of homicide, enmity and others. The police team is examining the CCTV footage from over 30 cameras installed on the school premises,” the officer said.
Staff members and classmates of Thakur, who hailed from the Bhondsi area, are being questioned, he said. The body has been sent for postmortem, police said.
Vinod said the school administration did not inform him about his son’s death initially. “They told me his health deteriorated suddenly. They did not take care of my son. He could have been saved if he had been taken to hospital in time,” he said. “I dropped him today at around 7:30 a.m. He was happy,” the grieving father said.
Last month, a 10-year-old boy died allegedly after “falling down” at G D Goenka Public School in Indirapuram. Arman Sehgal a student of class IV was dropped by his father to school and received a call as soon as he reached home. “They said my son had fallen down and was being taken to Shanti Gopal Hospital,” his mother, Swati Sehgal, said.
Arman, who received head injuries, was declared dead at the hospital, police said.
An FIR against the school principal and the management was registered on a complaint filed by the boy’s father, Gulshan Sehgal.
On January 20, 2016, a six-year-old student, Devansh Kakrora, of Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj died after he allegedly fell into a water tank. According to the CCTV video footage obtained from Ryan International School, Divyansh was seen playing on the school ground, a few minutes before his body was found in a water tank.
After the incident, a case of negligence causing death was registered at Vasant Kunj North police station. Police had arrested the principal and four other staff, five days after Divyansh Kakrora drowned in a water tank on the campus.
