Pradyuman Murder: 16-year-old Accused Challenges Order to Prosecute Him as Adult

Gurgaon: A 16-year-old student, accused in the case of murder of a seven-year-old boy at a private school at Bhondsi in Gurgaon, on Saturday sought setting aside of an order of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) directing him to be face criminal prosecution as an adult.

Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu was told by the accused that the JJB order was bad in law and it was passed without giving him proper opportunity to present his case.

The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) had on December 20 last year held that the teenager would be tried as an adult and had directed that he be produced before the Gurgaon Sessions Court.

Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, appearing for the accused during in-camera proceedings, apprised the waiting media about the day's hearing.

During the hearing, it was alleged before the court that the JJB passed the order "only on face value of allegations and evidence".

The board relied upon a letter of the psychologist which had only one paragraph and lacked material evidence, he said, adding that his client did not get any opportunity to rebut the arguments of the probe agency.

Advocate Sushil Tekriwal, appeared for the victim's father, opposed the application, saying the board had passed a detailed order after going through the documents and the opinion of the experts, and that there was no illegality in the order.

The court has posted the matter for February 28 when it will resume hearing on the appeal.

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 CBI, in a charge sheet, has alleged that the teenager had murdered the student in September last year in a bid to postpone exams and cancel a scheduled parent-teacher meeting.

In the final report, the agency said that sufficient oral, documentary and forensic evidence has come on record to substantiate that the 16-year-old accused had committed the murder on September 8 last year.

"It is, therefore, prayed that since a case of committing of murder of Prince on September 8, 2017 is made out against Bholu, this court may be pleased to take cognisance for the commission of offences punishable under 302 (murder) of Indian

Penal Code against Bholu accordingly as per law," it said.

The victim's body was found with his throat slit in the washroom of the school.

The agency also gave a clean chit to school bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who was earlier arrested by the Gurgaon Police, and sought his discharge, saying there was no evidence to prove his involvement in the crime.

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

On January 8, the court had rejected the bail plea of the juvenile accused, imposed a cost of Rs 21,000 for "wasting the court's time" in baseless litigation and directed his father to deposit the amount.