Justice AB Chaudhari of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday recused himself from hearing the anticipatory bail petitions of the trustees of Ryan International School in the murder case of a seven-year-old boy in Gurugram.
The judge refused to hear the petition as he knew the group’s Chief Executive Officer Ryan Pinto, and his parents Augustine Pinto and Grace Pinto personally. The matter will now be transferred to the chief justice of the High Court, and a different bench will hear it.
The Pintos had filed the bail petition in the Haryana and Punjab High Court on September 16. On September 14, the Bombay High Court had rejected their anticipatory bail pleas.
They had said that it was unimaginable that they could be involved in the crime. “We apprehend that the agencies may, under pressure from the wrath of public opinion, fail to fully appreciate the legal position,” the Pintos had said in their petition. “Notwithstanding the diabolical nature of the crime… the ends of justice call for an objective evaluation of the circumstances.”
The matter relates to the murder of a seven-year-old boy on the school premises in Gurugram on September 8. A postmortem report revealed that injuries on the boy’s neck inflicted by a sharp-edged weapon was the cause of his death. The boy’s trachea and food pipe were damaged in the attack, according to the report.
So far, the police have arrested bus conductor Ashok Kumar for allegedly murdering the boy. Two other officials of the school have also been taken into custody.
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