The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday stayed the arrest of the owners of Ryan International School until the next hearing on October 7, ANI reported. Ryan Group’s Chief Executive Officer Ryan Pinto and his parents were earlier summoned by Gurugram Police for interrogation in relation to the murder of a Class 2 student inside the school campus on September 8.
The hearing was adjourned after the Central Bureau of Investigation sought time to submit its response in the case, The Indian Express reported. The CBI took over investigation of the case on September 23.
On September 20, the High Court had refused to stay the arrests of the Pintos, who had filed their bail petitions on September 16.
The Pintos had said 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,” they 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 seven-year-old was found dead with his throat slit in the school toilet on September 8. An autopsy had revealed that injuries on the boy’s neck, inflicted by a sharp-edged weapon, were the cause of his death. The student’s trachea and food pipe were damaged in the attack, the report said.
Three accused, including a bus conductor, from the school were sent to custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation on September 23 in connection with the death.
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