The Juvenile Justice Board on Wednesday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to take fingerprints of the 16-year-old accused in the Gurugram Ryan International School murder case. The board will decide whether to treat the boy as an adult on Friday, The Times of India reported.
The Class 11 student is accused of murdering a Class 2 student in the Gurugram school on September 8.
A team of officials from the investigating agency will visit the observation home in Faridabad, where the juvenile is lodged, on December 19. The boy’s parents and lawyers should accompany the officials, the board said, according to the Hindustan Times.
The board will hear the boy’s bail plea on Friday. His lawyers said the juvenile had been under custody since November 7, and the prescribed one-month period for investigation under juvenile justice rules had lapsed.
The board dismissed an application by the accused’s lawyers, who sought to defer arguments for deciding on a plea by the victim’s father that he should be tried as an adult. The lawyers wanted the plea to be decided upon after the CBI files its chargesheet. It also rejected another application requesting that the lawyers be given access to the boy’s sociological and psychological reports, which would be used to establish whether he be tried as an adult or a minor.
The Juvenile Justice Board was hearing the case regarding the Central Bureau of Investigation’s application seeking the 16-year-old accused’s fingerprints, the victim’s father’s, and the juvenile’s father’s allegations against the investigating agency.
The murder
The Class 2 student was found with his throat slit inside a washroom in the school on September 8. An autopsy revealed injuries on the boy’s neck, inflicted by a sharp-edged weapon, were the cause of death.
After the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Class 11 student was arrested. On November 9, the CBI said the 16-year-old had confessed to the crime. The boy was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board in Gurugram last week, but was sent to the juvenile home for 14 more days.
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