The mystery surrounding the murder of a 7-year-old, Pradyuman Thakur, at Gurgaon’s Ryan International School remains unfolded yet.
The trustees of the school have been granted relief from arrest by the Bombay High Court. Two top officials have been arrested in connection with the murder. The court will hear an anticipatory bail plea by the owners of Ryan International Group of Institutions. The father of the victim demanded a CBI probe as he is suspicious of involvement of a ‘third person’ into the murder and got a green signal from the Supreme Court. The Principal of the school is detained and is likely to be arrested soon.
Ashok Kumar, the school bus conductor, allegedly tried to sexually assault class two student in a toilet and slit his throat with a knife when he resisted, is under police custody. The crime took place within 10 minutes, between 8 a.m. and 8:10 a.m. According to News18, the victim’s father had dropped his son and daughter to school at 7:55 a.m. The parent claimed that he received a call from the school at 8:10 a.m. informing him about his son being found bleeding inside the washroom.
Police suspect that the knife used to commit the crime belongs to the school bus’ tool box to which the driver of the bus has clearly denied. Also the window of the toilet is found to be broken during police inspection. It is suspected to be the escape route of the alleged Kumar.
The protests by the parents demanding children’s safety have started in the Goregaon branch of the school as well. The demands by the parents include police verification for all staff members, no entry for men in the premises, shifting the book counter out of the school basement to outside the school, visitor passes for people visiting the school with proper entry and exit time being noted, GPS to be installed in all school buses, online access to CCTV footage for parents, regular inspection of security cameras, women attendants in washrooms and buses, no entry for drivers, peons and conductors in students’ washrooms. The school management has agreed to the demands.
Similar protests were also found in the Kharghar branch of the Ryan International School. It is found that out of the 20 CCTV cameras installed; only 8 of them are functioning.
It is a worrisome situation to see how schools are no longer a safe place for students after another rape case of a five-year-old girl in a private school in Delhi by a school peon. Despite promising high security, the schools have shifted the purpose of their existence from education to commercialization. The impact of the events occurring stays long in the minds of the kids which are not given any heed. The parents are scared to send their children to school having no assurance of what fate their child might face in the school.
Students' Beat 