New Delhi: The 16-year-old student of a public school in Gurugram, accused of the murder of seven-year-old-Pradyuman Thakur, will be treated as an adult and undergo a regular trial in a court, the Juvenile Justice Board ruled on Wednesday. The boy will be produced in court on Friday, the board said. If convicted, he will stay in a correctional home till he is 21 and then be transferred to a jail.
Following the ruling, which came on a petition filed by Pradyuman's father Varun, the case was handed over to a sessions court in Gurugram. In the application filed by Varun, the board was told that since "the murder committed by the 16-year-old accused is chilling, horrific, monstrous and serious in nature, he should be tried as an adult."
On September 8, Pradyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit outside a Gurugram school's washroom. A month later, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which was handling the case, arrested the Class 11 student, saying the earlier arrest of a bus conductor, made by the local police, was a frame-up.The probe agency said the teen had confessed to killing Pradyuman, with the motive to ensure a postponement of an approaching examination and a parent-teacher meeting.
While there was no clinching evidence, the agency said the CCTV footage recovered from outside the school washroom showed that the teen was the last one leaving the washroom.The boy's father has alleged that the confession was extracted by torture. Pradyuman's parents, who had appealed that the teen accused be tried as an adult under the amended Juvenile Justice law, said they were grateful to the judiciary for the decision.(UNI)
