No bail for teen who allegedly lilled 7-year-old at Gurgaon school

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The Supreme Court Wednesday junked the bail plea of a boy accused of killing a 7-year-old boy at a private school in Gurgaon. A three judge bench headed by Justice R F Nariman dismissed the plea which had challenged the Punjab and Haryana High Court order. "We have heard counsel for all parties exhaustively including learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Complainant. "Since the petitioner is now being tried for the purposes of bail only as an adult, we see no reason to interfere with the impugned judgment of the High Court at this stage. Accordingly, the Special Leave Petition is dismissed," said the bench also comprising Justices Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee.

The CBI opposed the bail plea saying the accused does not deserve any leniency and contended that juvenile justice act cannot be used as a ploy to dupe course of justice. The accused had argued before the top court that the high court had erroneously observed that there is possibility of tampering of witnesses in the case. He said that due to the coronavirus pandemic there is very less possibility of trial to commence in near future.

Advocate Sushil Tekriwal, appearing for the victim's father, had also opposed the bail plea saying the accused be a serious threat if enlarged on bail and there is likelihood of tampering of evidence. The Punjab and Haryana high court in June had dismissed the bail plea filed by the boy. "This court is not inclined to grant any relief to the petitioner, in view of the order dated February 28, 2019, passed by Supreme Court (SC), directing that for deciding the bail application, the petitioner be treated as an "adult"; therefore, there is little scope for this court to find out whether the petitioner can be granted the relief under Section 12 of Juvenie Justice Act," the high court had said in its order.

The CBI, in a charge sheet, had alleged that the teenager had murdered the student on September 8, 2017 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 at the Bhondsi area in Gurgaon.

Earlier, the court had barred the media from using the name of the 16-year-old juvenile 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 probe agency had earlier given a clean chit to school bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who was 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, 2017 following a nationwide uproar over the gruesome killing.

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