Ryan case: Accused will be tried as an adult, says Sessions court

New Delhi: A sessions court on Monday dismissed the plea of a 16-year-old student, challenging the Juvenile Justice Board’s (JJB) decision declaring him an adult in the murder case of a seven-year-old boy at a private school in Gurgaon.

Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu junked the appeal of the student along with two other pleas in the case. The court had earlier granted time till July 4 to the CBI to file a supplementary chargesheet in the murder case of the boy at a private school here.

Advocate Sushil Tekriwal, lawyer for the victim, had argued that the JJB’s order declaring the 16-year-old accused an adult was “well-reasoned” and there was no fault and “nothing illegal” in it.

The counsel for the accused had challenged the JJB order, saying it was “bad in law” and passed without giving him proper opportunity to present his case.

Earlier, the court had barred the media from using the name of the accused in the case and asked it to use fictitious names instead.

While the seven-year-old victim was named “Prince” by the court, the juvenile accused was named “Bholu” and the school was referred to as “Vidyalaya”. The JJB had on December 20 last year held that the teenager would be tried as an adult and directed his production before the Gurgaon Sessions Court.

The CBI, in a chargesheet, had alleged that the teenager had murdered the student on September 8 last year in a bid to get the examinations postponed and a scheduled parent-teacher meeting cancelled. The victim’s body, with the throat slit, was found in the washroom of the school.

The CBI gave a clean chit to school bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who had been earlier arrested by the Gurgaon police, saying there was no evidence to prove his involvement in the crime.

The CBI had taken up the case from the Gurgaon police on September 22, following a nationwide uproar over the gruesome killing.