Let justice be done

Sumedha Sharma

Every time they spot an airplane flying, residents of a modest home at Bhondsi in Gurugram skip a heartbeat. Till two years ago, a bubbly and chirpy 7-year-old boy would wave at the airplane, shout out at it and tell everybody that he wanted to become a pilot. Everyone loved him as a cheerful boy, who was really fond of sweets.  Who would have thought that this boy fondly loved in the neighbourhood and the school for his unique name would be called ‘Prince’ and would become the face of juvenile crime victims? He left his home for school on September 8, 2017, excited to celebrate a friend’s birthday and eat chocolates but never returned. Within hours he lay in the school toilet with his throat slit. Months of investigation witnessed several twists and turns and motive theories and then a senior student was arrested who, according to the CBI, confessed to killing Prince to shock the entire school so that a forthcoming exam and the parent-teacher meeting were deferred. 

The brutal murder rattled the entire nation, and raised many issues such as juvenile crime, lack of security or vigilance in schools, shoddy police investigation, and alleged framing of an innocent school bus conductor but even after two years of the incident most of the questions remain unanswered. The bereaved family is still eagerly awaiting the much promised justice.

Trial yet to start

Various visuals have stayed in the memories of people following Prince’s murder but the most prominent is of a huffing father running from pillar to post, seeking justice for his dead son. The crestfallen father, an export company employee, never believed the Gurugram police theory of a school bus conductor having killed the boy and successfully got a CBI investigation marked.

“When we got the CBI enquiry marked, I thought the turmoil would end soon but it didn’t. The actual challenge started then. The CBI caught a senior student and told me that he had confessed to killing my son. I trusted them and believed them. But till date it is yet to be decided whether he will be tried as a juvenile or an adult or whether the trail should be conducted in Gurugram or in Panchkula court. I told them that the school was the biggest culprit, owing to its laxity and also people who tried to mislead me and framed an innocent man but now nobody talks about them,” says Prince’s father. 

He has to look after his wife and a daughter and is now looking to move on. “The time has stopped for us. I have to travel to Chandigarh four or five times a month. We save money to manage the legal expenses and are waiting for the case to get over so that at least we can give our daughter a life that she deserves. I want the investigation to conclude and the trail to be taken up in a fast-track court. I don’t plead for justice, but tell me who killed my son and what happened on that day,” he says.

Acquitted but not liberated

Nondescript Ghamroj village, located a few kilometres from swanky Gurugram, got excessive police and media attention. In this village lived 45-year-old Ashok Kumar, school bus conductor who is now the key witness in the murder case. Ashok claims himself to be a collateral damage of the murder. He was nabbed and presented to the nation as Prince’s brutal murderer. He was subjected to quick investigations though eventually he was found innocent by another investigative agency.

“It was not just the boy but even we died in many ways that day. My husband Ashok Kumar could not have a proper job and despite having been declared innocent people still gawk at us, turning their children away on seeing him. We want to leave but cannot as we don’t have enough money. A lawyer once told me that my husband would be the key in getting justice for the boy but till date we are waiting for justice for ourselves. We dread that fateful day as we know somebody would come looking and asking — did you do this?” says Ashok Kumar’s wife.

The police theory said that he (Ashok Kumar) was a cold-blooded emotionless man who killed the boy after the latter saw him doing something ‘wrong’ in the toilet. He had gone to the toilet to clean a knife and even confessed this in a press conference. However, it was on September 13 that he pleaded innocence in court and the shoddy side of investigation came to light.

“I knew it and so did many people in our village that my husband did not do it. We pooled in money and engaged a lawyer from Rohtak. My husband told court that the police forced him to wrongfully confess to the crime, as they were eager to close the case. Thankfully, after several months, he was acquitted. He is now a devastated man without any life and hope. They say we are waiting for action against the guilty policemen but the truth is that we are waiting for people to forget it, as we have forgotten justice,” says the distraught wife.

School security

Besides seeking punishment for the murderer of his son, Prince’s father blamed the renowned school, part of a national chain of institutions established in 1976. He told every investigative agency that the school was responsible for keeping his son safe at least on campus. This alarmed many parents and the authorities, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), started talking about the safety of students on school campus. 

While the nation debated the issue, the local administration headed by the then Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh issued special guidelines to schools and even constituted school security committees to carry out inspections but within months the vigor fizzled out.

However, there was a visible increase in the number of crimes on school campuses such as students attacking others and alleged abduction or sexual exploitation of children. The Gurugram police issued special guidelines to schools, ironically without any mechanism to check their implementation and as a result most of the institutions have learnt nothing.

Legal status

The trial is yet to start. After petitions filed by both sides, the Supreme Court is yet to decide whether the accused is to be tried as a juvenile or an adult person. 

The Punjab and Haryana High Court is yet to hear an application seeking regular bail for the accused.

The accused, who turned 18 during his stay at the Faridabad home, was shifted to a special home at Madhuban that houses accused aged between 18 and 21.

Policemen go scot-free

Even after two years, the CBI has not been able to book errant Gurugram police officials for the alleged botched-up investigation and framing bus conductor Ashok Kumar in the murder case. Ashok Kumar’s family has written to the Haryana DGP, seeking suo motto action against the guilty police officials, but to no avail.

Security guidelines issued by Gurugram police to schools

• Entry/exit of all persons, including the school staff, should be logged clearly with in and out times.
• Taking the identity proof of every visitor and issuing visitor’s passes.
• There should be only one entry/exit point in the school other than the emergency exit, which needs to be locked or guarded.
• The wall around the school must be high enough to prevent any successful attempt to scale it.
• Decide on only authorised access to the bus area, gym, swimming pools, sports rooms/ fields, canteens and toilets.
• Setting up of out-of-bound areas for students.
• Specifically for bus drivers and conductors, whether employed by the school or working on a contractual basis, access must be limited to just the bus area, which should have a toilet.
• Proper installation and monitoring of CCTV cameras in all areas, including the entrance to toilets. 
• A control panel must be set up with screens visible in a public place (such as reception) where besides the designated viewer, any passerby, including responsible persons such as teachers, security-in-charge, safety officer, vigilance officer, can also view them. The duty shift of the viewer should not be more than four hours at a stretch. 
• Every school shall have a designated safety officer whose specific responsibility shall be to ensure that there is minimum risk to a child’s safety on the school campus. 
• Unauthorised vendors, carts, shops and other establishments in the immediate area and the boundary of schools must be removed. Authorised vendors should possess a licence duly endorsed by the local police station.
• No candidate with a criminal record of sexual and physical violence may be recruited on any position in a school or educational institution. Besides the verification of antecedents, it is recommended that the interview panel should consist of the school counsellor who is able to provide a psychological profile of the person being considered for employment, and ensure that it is in tune with the values and ethos of the school.
• All selected candidates must provide signed affidavits to the institution that they have not been accused of offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012, the Juvenile Justice, Care and Protection of Children Act 2000 and any other sexual and/ or violent crimes under any other provision of the law in force. The affidavits may also contain information pertaining to their character and background. 
• It is the responsibility of the school to ensure that the antecedents of all transport staff, even if provided by contractors, have been verified. The school must maintain a record of the police verification of such staff.
• Children reaching school by bus should have a safe passage to the campus. Ideally, the bus should stop within the boundary wall of the school campus. If this is not possible, there must be school guards present to ensure the safe passage of children from the bus drop point to the school gate. 
• At dispersal time, children of KG to Class II in a group must be accompanied to the school bus by a designated representative, be it a 'didi' or a teacher.
• Every bus should have a lady teacher and a lady helper or ‘didi’ present during the travel. Therefore, the presence of an adult woman is essential before the first student boards the bus at the start of the journey and also till the last student gets off at the end. Care must be taken that at no time should a child (especially a girl) remains alone in the bus with the driver and the male conductor, and the presence of an adult woman is essential at the start and at the end of the journey. Routing should be accordingly planned so that the first and the last child is not a girl. Also, it is a must to have a ‘didi’ or a teacher so that the first and the last child, even if a boy, is not left alone with the bus driver and the conductor.
• The school bus in-charge is also responsible to ensure that the buses comply with the Supreme Court order (Nimit Kumar guidelines) in this regard and the Surakshit School Vahan policy creating awareness about bullying and other forms of physical or sexual abuse.