Pradyuman Thakur was a seven-year-old student at Ryan International School, in Gurugram, in the state of Haryana, India. He was found with injuries to his neck outside a washroom at the school on 8 September 2017, and he later succumbed to his wounds. A school bus driver who provided assistance with carrying the injured Pradyuman was initially charged with the murder, and allegedly confessed to police, but was later found to be innocent. Four police officers were later charged with framing him for the murder. Following a transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, an unnamed sixteen-year-old student from the same school has since been charged with his murder. The case is ongoing, with the accused granted bail as of Oct 22, 2022.
Thakur's death attracted widespread public concern and criticism for the conditions regarding safety in schools in India. A number of government reviews of Ryan International School's functioning were conducted following the investigation into Thakur's death, and revised guidelines for safety in schools were issued by both, the State and the Union governmental bodies.
Murder On 8 September 2017, Barun Chandra Thakur drove his 7-year-old child, Pradyuman, and 11-year-old daughter Vidhi, to Ryan International School, in Gurugram, Haryana, where both children were students. Thakur later stated that he had begun driving his children to school instead of sending them by school bus, because of safety concerns.
Thakur left his children at the school gates at 7:55 a.m. At 8:08 a.m., several students alerted school staff that Pradyuman had been injured, and was bleeding from two neck wounds, outside a washroom near his classroom, on the ground floor of the building. Staff members asked a school bus conductor, Ashok Kumar, to assist them with carrying Pradyuman to a car belonging to one of the school teachers, and drove Pradyuman to a nearby hospital in Badshahpur. He was transferred from there to Artemis Hospital in Gurugram, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Pradyuman's parents, Barun and Jhyoti Thakur, were contacted by the school authorities after he was found, at 8:15 a.m, and went directly to the hospital where he had been taken. They later stated to press that school officials had not informed them about the injuries their son had suffered, and that the police had not been called by the school, but instead had been called by themselves.
Several hundreds attended the last rites for Pradyuman, who was cremated with police protection, in Gurugram.
Investigation
Haryana police investigation
Initial investigation and arrest of Ashok Kumar The Haryana State Police were alerted about the incident by Pradyuman's parents, and arrived at the school at 11:30 AM on the same day. Police officials stated to media that a blood stained knife was recovered from the area where Pradyuman was found, and a police forensics team examined the area and collected evidence, including fingerprints, from the area. CCTV footage recovered from the hallway near the scene of the crime showed Pradyuman attempting to crawl out of the washroom, while bleeding from the neck, before collapsing in the hallway. Police detained and questioned ten persons, and observed blood stains on the shirt of Ashok Kumar, the school bus conductor who had assisted with carrying Pradyuman to a car which took him to the hospital. A cellphone video recorded by a witness at the scene of the crime showed school authorities asking Kumar to help pick up Pradyuman to transport him to the hospital. Kumar was arrested by the Haryana Police in connection with the murder at 12 noon, on the same day.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sumit Kumar, stated that Kumar had arrived with a school bus at 7:50 AM and had gone to the ground floor washroom in the school building, which was commonly used by staff and students. According to the police, he was carrying a knife that he had found in the bus tool kit, and had gone to the washroom to rinse off the knife before taking it home for his own use. When Pradyuman entered the washroom, the police suggested that Kumar attempted to sexually assault Pradyuman, and on meeting with resistance, had attempted to murder him with the knife, which was left behind at the scene of the crime. Haryana Police also initially told a Gurugram court that they believed an additional suspect was involved, and that an attempt had been made to tamper with the crime scene. However, this statement was contradicted by a senior police official who stated to the press that "Only Ashok has murdered Pradyuman, no other person is involved." Police officials alleged that Kumar had confessed to the murder while in custody.
Release of Ashok Kumar The arrest of Kumar was met with public doubts and concern, including from Pradyuman Thakur's family. Thakur's mother stated later that she had believed the conductor was being framed. Saurabh Raghav, a bus driver working for Ryan International School on the bus which Ashok Kumar conducted, later stated that he was pressured by the Gurugram Police to state that the knife found at the scene of the murder was part of the bus tool kit. A medical examination of Pradyuman Thakur's body ruled out any sexual assault. Another witness, a school gardener named Harpal Singh, who was one of the first on the scene to find Pradyuman, stated that he had not seen any bloodstains on Kumar's clothes before he assisted with picking up Pradyuman to take him to hospital. Harpal Singh also stated that he had also been repeatedly physically assaulted by the police in an attempt to force him to confess to the murder.
Kumar maintained publicly that he was innocent and had not committed the murder. He later stated that he had been tortured by the Haryana Police while in custody, and that he had confessed to prevent being further tortured. Kumar stated that he was denied food for two days while in custody, and was repeatedly slapped and beaten by police officials.
On 15 September 2017, the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation, a federal investigative agency, after Pradyuman's parents petitioned the state government and the Supreme Court of India. The CBI assumed custody of the persons arrested by the Haryana Police, including Kumar, and reopened the investigation. On 7 November 2017, the CBI arrested an unnamed student for the murder of Pradyuman Thakur. The Central Bureau of Investigation subsequently cleared Kumar of any involvement in the murder.
Following this, on 22 November 2017, Kumar was granted bail by a District Court in Gurugram. On 28 February 2018, Kumar was acquitted of all charges relating to the murder of Pradyuman Thakur by a special court.
At the time of Kumar's arrest, a Bar Association of lawyers in Gurugram had passed a resolution stating that its members would not defend Kumar against the accusations of murder of Pradyuman Thakur. The Bar Association subsequently retracted their position when he was released on bail after being cleared by the CBI. Kumar's family stated that he had eventually been able to obtain legal representation after reaching out through personal connections. The Supreme Court subsequently disciplined the Bar Association for this resolution.
Following Ashok Kumar's release, the Haryana Police stated that while Ashok Kumar had been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation, and that no charges had been filed against him at the time. The National Human Rights Commission ordered the Haryana Police to compensate Kumar for the wrongful arrest, but he declined to accept, terming the compensation to be insufficient. Kumar has sought legal action against the police officers who arrested him. In January 2021, four police officers of the Gurugram Police were charged with framing Ashok Kumar, by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The charges including offences relating to falsifying documents, torture, and criminal conspiracy. They have not yet been arrested on these charges, as of November 2021.
CBI investigation
Transfer of investigation to CBI The initial investigation of the murder by Gurugram Police was met with wide public criticism, including by Pradyuman's father, Barun Thakur. Barun Thakur filed a petition at the Supreme Court, asking for the investigation to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On 15 September 2017, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced that the case had been transferred to the CBI in response to requests by the parents of Pradyuman Thakur, although he affirmed that in his view, the investigation had been correctly handled by the Haryana Police. The Haryana Police also denied any mishandling of the investigation, stating that their findings were preliminary and that the investigation had still been ongoing when it was transferred to the CBI. Pradyuman Thakur's family stated that they had asked the CBI to investigate the possibility of the involvement of other students at the school in Pradyuman's death, as they had received information that some older students had consumed alcohol in the presence of younger students and had threatened the younger students to prevent them from telling school authorities.
Investigation The CBI sent a forensic team to the school to review the evidence and scene of crime independently from the Haryana Police investigation on 22 September 2017 . They took over custody of the persons arrested by the Haryana Police. Following their investigation, the CBI identified a different knife as the murder weapon, stating that they had recovered it from the scene of the crime and that it had been hidden inside one of the washrooms. This contradicted the Haryana Police's statement that a knife recovered at the scene of the crime, and identified as part of the school bus tool kit, was the murder weapon. The CBI also reviewed CCTV footage from the crime scene and found that there were some students visible in the footage apart from Pradyuman Thakur. The CBI worked with the school administration to identify these students and then questioned them. They re-examined forensic evidence and found no evidence that Ashok Kumar, the bus conductor arrested by the Haryana Police, was involved in the murder. A forensic investigation by the CBI found that Pradyuman's body had bloodstains that were not matched to himself, and that Kumar was also ruled out forensically as a match. The CBI also stated that the Haryana Police's claim that a semen sample had been found on Pradyuman's body and had been sent for testing could not be confirmed, and that they could not find any evidence that such a sample had been found or tested.
Arrest of unnamed student for murder On 7 November 2017, the CBI arrested an unnamed class XI student, aged 16, from Ryan International School for Pradyuman Thakur's murder. The student was one of the first on the scene of the crime, and had informed school authorities that another student had been injured. The Haryana Police later stated that while they had questioned the unnamed student as a witness immediately after the murder, they had found no evidence suggesting that he was responsible for the death of Pradyuman Thakur at the time.