NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail to a 21-year-old who was accused of allegedly killing a Class II student in the Ryan International School in Gurugram. The accused was a 16-year-old when the incident took place on September 8, 2017.
A minor’s body with a slit throat was found inside the school’s washroom. When the probe was handed over to the CBI from Haryana police, the person who was initially accused was exonerated and a Class XI from the same school was arrested.
While granting bail, a bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and JK Maheshwari said that though the murder was barbaric it would not mean that it was right to keep a 16-year-old in jail without trial for almost five years.
The bench also asked the lower court to impose terms and conditions for his release and said that the accused would remain under the supervision of a probationary officer or any other person for the purpose. The sessions judge was also asked to apprise it of any “shortcomings in the accused’s conduct” brought to notice by the probationary officer.
“Fact of the matter is that the liberty of the petitioner has been curtailed in this case and he is in detention for a period of one month less than five years. Even while looking at the serious nature of the crime in question, without making any comment on merits, the requirement of balancing the competing claims and equities cannot be ignored. Petitioner was 16 when he was taken in detention and is 21 now,” the bench said.
The bench also affirmed the ruling of the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) for the accused to be tried as an adult and said that any order of the JJB could be challenged on its own merits. The SC had in July remanded the case back to the JJB.