Pradyuman murder: Juvenile Justice Board rejects plea to treat accused as minor

In a major setback for juvenile accused in Pradyuman murder case, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Gurgaon on Wednesday rejected the petition filed by the juvenile's family to treat the accused as minor till the time chargesheet is not filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

JJB also accepted the application filed by the agency in which they had requested to take finger-prints of the juvenile accused for further investigation.

The court directed the CBI to take the finger prints of juvenile accused on December 19 in presence of his parents and counsel. The accused has been lodged at Faridabad's remand home.

On Friday, the court is expected to deliver order on the bail application of juvenile which was filed by the accused's family on Wednesday. The court has asked the investigative officer of the case to file a reply on the bail application.

Earlier, the family of Pradyuman Thakur, who was killed on September 8, inside the washroom of Ryan International School Bhondsi, to treat the juvenile accused as adult and not minor. The accused is 16 years and five months old.

The juvenile, a student of class 11, was booked by CBI after investigations by the agency revealed that he killed Pradyuman because he wanted school's exam and parents-teachers meeting to be postponed.

CBI, during the remand also identified the shop from where the accused had purchased the knife which he later used to kill Pradyuman.

Recently, bus conductor Ashok, who was arrested on the day of the murder by the Gurgaon Police on charges of killing Pradyuman was granted bail by the Gurgaon's court.

The bail was granted after the CBI told the court that there was no evidence against Ashok. He was allegedly roughed up by the Gurgaon Police who also coerced him into admitting the crime.