SC to grant interim bail to student who allegedly killed his junior

Interim bail was granted to the accused from a case in 2017 by the Supreme Court. A 16-year-old allegedly murdered a 7-year-old Class II student at a private school in Gurugram. A Bench comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and JK Maheshwari noted that the 16-year-old accused has been in detention for over five years, a report on IANS stated.

Representing the accused Senior Advocate Manan Kumar Mishra and Advocate Durga Dutt said that their client has been in detention for over five years and there have been no trials on the case until now, stated the IANS report. The Supreme Court said that bail would be granted to the accused with terms and conditions that may be imposed by the Gurugram sessions judge and the accused should continue to be under the supervision of a probation officer. The court has now scheduled the matter to January 2023 for further hearing. 

About the case...
A 7-year-old Class II student from a private school was found with his throat slit outside the washroom on September 8, 2017. The accused, then a Class XI student, now 21 years old, allegedly killed his junior to postpone an upcoming examination and a parent-teacher conference, as stated on IANS. 

The SC noted that the petitioner/accused was 16 when he was taken into 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, stated the report.

The counsel arguing for the accused stated that there is no direct evidence to prove that their client has committed the crime and there is no eye witness who has placed him at the scene of the crime. A careful perusal of the 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, said the counsel, as reported by IANS.

Counsel further stated that none of the lower courts had ever attempted to thoroughly review the evidence on file while dealing with the bail issue and that nothing in the file could support the prosecution of the petitioner in this case. It is a well-established legal concept that a suspect, no matter how strong, cannot replace the proof and that a conviction cannot be founded just on suspicion, the attorney continued. 

A school bus driver was initially detained by the Gurugram police for the murder. Later on, the CBI took over the case and arrested the suspect after claiming that he had admitted to killing the Class II student.