Plea challenging Ryan officials’ anticipatory bail to be heard on Jan 23

The Supreme Court Bench of Justices RK Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre, on Monday (January 8) has asked the Centre to submit all relevant documents related to the anticipatory bail granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to founders and officials of Gurugram’s Ryan International School by January 19. The Bench will hear the matter on January 23.

The directive of the apex court came in a plea filed by Barun Thakur, father of Pradyuman Thakur – the seven-year-old child who was found murdered in the Ryan school campus on September 8 last year.

Barun Thakur has sought the cancellation of the anticipatory bail plea granted to Ryan International Group’s founding members, Augustine Pinto, Grace Pinto and Ryan Pinto.

Though the Pinto family had been granted anticipatory bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, they had also been directed against leaving the country and told that they should make themselves available for questioning as and when the CBI, which is probing the Pradyuman murder case, summons them.

The premier investigation agency has so far not brought on record any evidence to directly associate the Pintos with Pradyuman’s murder. The CBI has arrested a Class 11 student of Ryan International School for allegedly murdering Pradyuman with the intention of getting a scheduled parents-teacher meeting and an examination postponed.

However, the CBI hasn’t yet established any lapse or negligence on the part of the Pinto, which could have contributed to the crime nor has there been any charge made out against the Pintos of criminal conspiracy in the case. It is primarily on these grounds that the Pintos were granted anticipatory bail.

The petitioner Barun Thakur has, however, submitted before the Supreme Court that the Pintos could use their position in society to influence and disrupt the CBI probe or even intimidate witnesses and others associated with the case or its investigation.

The apex court had, on an earlier occasion, rejected Barun Thakur’s plea for quashing the anticipatory bail granted to the Pintos on the grounds that the CBI had not come to any conclusion on their involvement in the crime.

Meanwhile, a Gurugram court on Monday rejected the bail plea of the Class 11 student who has been arrested for allegedly murdering Pradyuman. Additional session judge Jasbir Singh Kundu had last week reserved its order on the bail plea filed by the student’s family. The minor accused was arrested by the CBI on November 8, two months after Pradyuman’s murder.

—India Legal Bureau