School murder case moves closer to trial

GURUGRAM: A local court will hear argument on framing of charges in the Gurugram school murder case, in which a Class 11 student is facing trial as an adult for allegedly murdering a Class 2 boy, on the last day of this month.
The district and sessions court fixed February 28 for arguments and extended the accused student’s detention till then. At present, the boy is at an observation home.

On February 5, CBI had filed the chargesheet in the school murder case. On Monday, the juvenile’s counsel was given a copy of the chargesheet and the court directed CBI to file the remaining documents by February 17. “CBI, on the direction of the court, gave a copy of the chargesheet to the juvenile’s counsel and the agency will submit some other documents on February 17,” said Sunshil Tekriwal, counsel for the victim’s father. He said the court had set things in motion to start the trial in the case.

The juvenile was produced before the court on Monday. Sandeep Aneja, his counsel, said the court will hear pending applications challenging the police remand, the collection of the juvenile’s fingerprints and the decision of Juvenile Justice Board to treat him as an adult on Saturday.

After completion of its investigation, CBI has made the juvenile the only accused in the case. School bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who was initially arrested by Gurugram police as the prime accused, was given a clean chit. CBI claimed to have sufficient evidence in the form of oral, documentary and forensic reports which substantiate that the juvenile committed the murder on September 8.

CBI had also requested the discharge of Ashok as no evidence was found against him. “No evidence has come on record to substantiate the involvement of conductor Ashok Kumar in the murder. No traces of sexual assault were found. No bloodstain was found on his clothes. Ashok’s presence inside the washroom has been explained and found to be justified and true based on independent versions of several witnesses and minute analysis of the CCTV footage,” said the chargesheet. The investigation agency dedicated nearly two dozen pages, countering the investigation of Gurugram police, and giving a clean chit to Ashok Kumar, who was arrested on September 8 and later given bail in November.

Mohit Verma, counsel for Ashok Kumar, said they were going to file a discharge application before the court on February 14. “The chargesheet has been filed and CBI has found no evidence against Ashok, who is out on bail. So, we will file an application before the court to discharge Ashok from the case,” said Verma.