Twist in Ryan International School murder case exposes rot in India’s police and education systems
The infamous Ryan International School murder case, in which a seven-year-old Class 2 student, Pradyuman Thakur, had his throat slit in the washroom, has taken a fresh turn. But that doesn’t make it any less horrifying.
In fact, if the Class 11 student detained by the CBI has indeed “confessed” to the crime of killing Pradyuman because he wanted “examinations to be postponed” and PTM (parent teacher meeting) deferred, then we are staring at an abyss that’s not an individual aberration, but a systemic failure, a rot in our education system itself.
Big breakthrough in #PradhyumnMurderCase: CBI detains class 11 student on murder charges#ITVideo For more: https://t.co/NounxnP7mg pic.twitter.com/Q0AXGAejwA
— India Today (@IndiaToday) November 8, 2017
Killed to postpone exams: CBI
As reported by India Today, the CBI has contradicted Haryana Police (which had arrested a bus conductor and accused him of sexually assaulting and murdering little Pradyuman) and has detained a Class 11 student, who was the first to raise an alarm about Pradyuman’s killing, apparently having “discovered” the body in the washroom. As reports say, the CBI’s suspicion grew when other students confirmed that this Class 11 student was one of the first to say that exams would be postponed because school would close down in the wake of the murder.
Big Development in #Pradhyumanmurder case: Sources- CBI detains a class 11th student of Ryan International School Gurgaon for murder. More details at 9 am @IndiaToday
— Ankit Tyagi (@Ankit_Tyagi01) November 8, 2017
Listing out what we know so far: Father of the boy who was detained speaks to me-1) Confirms his son, a class 11th student of the same school was arrested last night. Was questioned by CBI at HQ through the day before his arrest in the night.
— Ankit Tyagi (@Ankit_Tyagi01) November 8, 2017
While the CBI’s official statement is expected soon, the detention has been made under Indian Penal Code Section 302 (murder) and Section 25 of the Arms Act, as the murder weapon, a knife, was supposedly found in the commode of the washroom. However, the father of the Class 11 student has claimed “conspiracy” to India Today reporter, Ankit Tyagi.
2) Says he son was the first one to see Pradhyman and informed Gardner and teachers. 3) CBI told him, his son wanted exams to be postponed and killed Pradhymun to get school to declare holiday.4) CBI told him, his son bought the murder weapon a day prior (planned act)
— Ankit Tyagi (@Ankit_Tyagi01) November 8, 2017
5) Father of the arrested juvenile claims conspiracy. Says have sympathy for #Pradhyuman’s family but his son is being framed.6) CBI questioned the boy right from the beginning, interrogated at least 5 times at CBI HQ as well as school6) CBI likely to file chargesheet by Nov 18
— Ankit Tyagi (@Ankit_Tyagi01) November 8, 2017
Father cries ‘conspiracy, torture’
The father of the detained student has also claimed that his son was “tortured” by the CBI, and any confession had been made under duress. He says there was “blood stain” on his son’s shirt, and that the boy was writing an exam on the day of the murder (teachers confirmed this).
8) Father of the arrested boy accuses CBI of torture. 9) Says there was no blood spot on my boys shirt. 10) I was not even allowed to meet him before his detention. 11) Father also says my son was giving the exam on the day of the murder. Teachers confirm he was in the class.
— Ankit Tyagi (@Ankit_Tyagi01) November 8, 2017
However, with the CBI claiming “material evidence” – possibly the knife – the charges against the older student would be framed soon, as he is produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.
CBI Sources- Boy has confessed and has given confessional statement. We have material evidence as well. Accused Boy's bag and other stuff with CBI. Meanwhile, #Pradhyuman's father Barun Thakur says he is satisfied with the CBI investigation. Always knew there was a cover up.
— Ankit Tyagi (@Ankit_Tyagi01) November 8, 2017
Questions for Haryana Police
The new turn of events has actually put forth more questions than presenting a neat denouement of cause and effect, motive and murder. Not only does the CBI rounding up the new suspect call into question what the Haryana Police did – hurriedly arrested the bus conductor, Ashok Kumar, for the child’s murder, in a way echoing what the Noida Police did in 2008 in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case – but also how they claimed that they managed a “confession” from the conductor. In addition, they also claimed that Kumar had tried to sexually abuse Pradyuman and killed him when the boy resisted.
Shame on the Haryana police for jailing an innocent man for the Ryan School murder. How will they compensate him for what they did? Will the policemen who did this be punished?
— Tavleen Singh (@tavleen_singh) November 8, 2017
Just like #aarushi case? #Pradyuman family lawyer now says Haryana cops messed up, crime scene cleaned, blood stains were removed
— Suparna Singh (@Suparna_Singh) November 8, 2017
How is it that both the suspects have neat confessions as per the agency that’s arrested them? Since both cannot be right, unless there’s collusion, the CBI’s investigations and findings seem to completely debunk the Haryana Police's now patently bogus claims. How’s it that Haryana Police did what it did, produced a fake suspect in a hurry to seem to have cracked this macabre case of a brutal child murder? Was that “confession” also obtained under torture?
Questions for Ryan International School
As we had said earlier, there are too many questions for Ryan International School and its owners Ryan and Grace Pinto to answer, particularly contradicting the bus-conductor- is-the-murderer line.
We had asked why no one heard the boy’s cries for help; how did someone walk in with a knife; what about CCTV cameras and why were there none; what kind of security are private schools capable of; why’s the father of Pradyuman Thakur – Varun Thakur – not convinced of the Kumar angle; how was it that Pradyuman was killed by 8:10am when Varun dropped him off by 7:55am, if there was any sexual assault by Kumar; why did the Kumar angle seem more like a crime of passion, while the murder seemed pre-planned; among others.
If CBI’s findings on #Pradyuman murder in #Ryan are true, they show:1. How easily we first blame the poor for crime2. We’re turning our kids into beasts with pressure of performance. Class XI boy wanted to defer PTM, exams3. Large parts of police remain corrupt or incompetent
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) November 8, 2017
However, with the CBI findings and the arrest of the Class 11 student, it would seem that Ryan International School, much like the Haryana Police, was in a hurry to cover up the trail to the real murderer, for that would draw attention to the deep-seated rot within the education system itself.
Is it easier to blame the poor because they fit a certain stereotype and are essentially outsiders to India’s story of privatised education and its compromised non-inclusive development? That’s exactly the case here, since the life of a mere bus conductor seemed dispensable to the Haryana Police (and Ryan International School) at the altar of sprucing up their image, challenged by the increased rape and murder cases, some of the highest in the country.
But one of their own students carrying a knife into the school and perhaps also murdering a younger student would tear apart the mighty edifice of good education that private schools promise after a hefty fee, when education is turned into a commercial service between a client and a business entity.
Rot in the education system
While earlier the school was questioned on security, in the wake of the CBI findings, we must ask what kind of a hyper-competitive grinding machine have they turned the institute into, so much so that students are terrorised into taking their own lives or killing others to evade the dreaded examinations?
Why would a Class 11 student find it easier to kill a little boy, an innocent junior, to escape being tried in the unkind and uncharitable court of examinations, in which grades determine your human worth and value, and no holistic approach to overall development, individualised talent building, encouragement and excitement about learning is to be found?
Why is schooling so dreary that snuffing out a young life seems easier than sitting through the tests, facing parents who are as angry as the teachers and schools that their child is “a weak student”, forcing him/her to repeat and learn by rote, instead of asking questions or pursuing what they actually like?
Our editorial on a recent report on the increased frequency of suicides among students was also along the same line, when we questioned why schools and society are robbing the kids of their childhood by fitting all the square pegs in the round hole of our education system. We said: “[As] a post-liberalisation generation grows up aspiring for a certain standard of life; for most, a professional degree is the only way to attain it; there are few colleges and fewer jobs and so the competition to get into the ones that "guarantee a job" is tragically fierce. Add to this family expectations, the tying of self-worth to scores/grades, and you have a lethal cocktail.”
There’s no silver lining to this heinous crime, basically by the system that so fails its young folks. Unless there’s a systemic overhaul, unless education is returned to personalised ethical roots, unless students are counseled and reassured again and again that examinations are not the end of the world, nor a regular college degree in engineering or medicine essential for measuring one’s worth, there would be more extreme steps taken by students with no one to turn to.
This needs to stop now, and the guilty parties here - Ryan International School, Haryana Police, Indian education system – must pay up.