Ryan owners fail to get protection from arrest in student murder case

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday refused to stay the arrest of Ryan International School owners in connection with the alleged murder of a Class 2 student in their Gurgaon branch.

Ryan Pinto, the CEO of Ryan International, and his parents Augustine and Grace Pinto, the founders, had gone to the high court last week requesting anticipatory bail. Justice Inderjit Singh did not grant the Pintos any reprieve on Wednesday. “The single bench has issued a notice of motion to the Haryana government seeking its response on the anticipatory bail plea,” said the counsel for the Ryan trustees.

On Tuesday, another judge, A.B.Chaudhari, withdrew from the case, reportedly on grounds that he knows the Pintos and it wouldn’t be fair for him to hear their petition. The Pintos moved the Punjab and Haryana high court after the Bombay high court rejected their request for protection from arrest on September 14. The Haryana government had last week handed over the probe into the sensational Pradyuman murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).  The announcement was made by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar shortly after he met the victim’s parents at their residence.  He had also announced that Haryana government will take over the management of the school for next three months.  Deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh will be in-charge of the school during this period, said sources.  Seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit in the washroom of the school on September 8. The school bus conductor Ashok Kumar has emerged as the prime suspect and has been arrested. The post-mortem report later said that Pradyuman sustained an 18 cm long wound a little over his neck which cut through his ears up to the “superficial scalp tissue behind the ear”. The wound was 2 cm deep said the post-mortem report of Pradyuman. The report also said that Pradyuman’s veins near the throat region and food pipe were found slashed. His trachea (windpipe) too was damaged.

Also, wound, 12-cm long and 2-cm deep, was found below the first injury.