Gurugram school's murder: SC grants interim bail to accused who slit junior's throat

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail to an accused in the 2017 sensational case of killing a seven-year-old Class II student at a reputed private school in Gurgaon.

A bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and J K Maheshwari noted that the accused has been in detention for nearly five years now and trial has yet not commenced in the case.

Recently, the Juvenile Justice Board clarified that the accused student should be tried as an adult and not as a juvenile.

The seven-year-old student was found with his throat slit outside the school's washroom on September 8, 2017.

After hearing senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra and advocate Durga Dutt on behalf of the accused, the court said the bail would be granted on terms and conditions as may be imposed by sessions judge Gurugram and the accused would have to remain under the continued supervision of probation officer.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing in January 2023.

The accused, then a grade 11 student, was accused of murdering the Class II student picked randomly for the alleged purpose of getting an examination and a parent-teacher meeting deferred.

The top court noted that the petitioner was 16 when he was taken in detention and is 21 now. Although he is at present being housed in a correctional home, his continued detention pre-trial may have its own adverse effects, it added.

The counsel, for the accused, argued that there is no direct evidence against the petitioner, and there is no eye witness to the occurrence and a careful perusal of entire material would show that except the baseless suspicion, there is absolutely no material produced by the CBI to connect the petitioner with the alleged offense.

The counsel further argued that while dealing with the bail matter, none of the courts below have ever tried to examine the materials on records meticulously.

Maintaining that there is nothing on record which could justify the prosecution of the petitioner, the counsel said it is a settled principle of law that the suspicion howsoever strong it may be, cannot take the place of the evidence and a conviction cannot be based on mere suspicion.

The Gurugram Police had initially arrested a school bus conductor for the murder. However, later, the investigation was handed over to CBI, which arrested the accused, saying he had confessed to killing the Class II student.