GURUGRAM: As expected, the chargesheet in the
Gurugram school murder case, filed by
CBI in a Gurugram court on Monday, has made several claims that contradict the police probe. Besides exonerating —
Ashok Kumar — the prime accused according to police in the murder of the Class II student, it also accuses police of pressuring several witnesses to give statements that fit their theory, as well as of torture and harassment of Ashok and other witnesses. Further, despite questioning the
juvenile CBI has apprehended for murder, they did not bother to make him a person of interest, raising serious doubts about the police probe.
While in CBI custody, Ashok Kumar had told officials he had confessed to murdering the Class II student — 'Prince' — under "coercion and threat of Gurugram police officers. He also said he was tortured and beaten by Gurugram police officers," the chargesheet reads, adding that in his first confessional statement, recorded by police on the day of the murder in the presence of constable Bheem Singh of Bhondsi police station, Ashok said he took the murder weapon — a knife — from the tool box of the school bus in which he worked as conductor.
However, in his next statement to police the day after the murder, Ashok had said he had bought the knife from a shop in Agra, UP, even though "police did not conduct any investigation with record to the fact... as regards source of the knife he used in committing the murder" before recording Ashok's second statement. In another confession on the third day (September 10), Ashok again stated he took the knife from the bus' tool box.
CBI also said during their examination of Saurabh Raghav, the driver of the bus in which Ashok was conductor, the former stated there was "no knife in the tool box, as he had cleaned it two days before the incident." Raghav had also told the same to police, but was "pressured" to admit the knife was in the tool box. The chargesheet says Raghav did not succumb to the pressure, leading to CBI's conclusion that they could not substantiate if the knife was taken from the bus.
Another difference is whether Ashok had taken off the knicker
Prince was wearing. The chargesheet states a school nurse, who had accompanied Prince to hospital, had told CBI she had "removed Prince's shoes and socks, and opened the belt and buttons of his knickers to make him relax". CBI also found Ashok had never touched any students while they were boarding or de-boarding the bus, which was corroborated by two teachers who were in the bus on the fateful day.
Police's sexual assault theory further fell flat when no semen samples could be detected on Prince's underwear and body parts in the FSL report, ruling out "masturbation and sexual assault by Ashok Kumar". Further, Ashok's fingerprints did not match the "chance fingerprints" lifted by Gurugram police from the crime scene on September 7. Neither did his footprints or blood-stained footwear impressions match with those lifted by CBI's FSL.
CBI's probe states school gardener Harpal was also pressured by Gurugram police to confirm "the presence of Ashok inside the toilet", that Harpal's statement, in which he said there were bloodstains on Ashok's clothes "before he picked up Prince", was recorded under duress, and thus false. Ashok too said he had agreed to confess to Prince's murder after he was tortured by Gurugram police at Sohna.
