In a major relief to the Pinto family, the owners and trustees of Ryan International School, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today granted interim bail to its CEO Ryan Pinto, his parents, founding chairman Augustine Pinto and managing director Grace Pinto, in connection with the killing of a 7-year-old student in a Gurgaon school run by the group.
Staying their arrest till December 5, the court directed the Pinto family to cooperate in the Central Bureau of Investigation's probe into the murder of Pradhuman Thakur. They have also been directed not to leave the country.
The High Court also allowed the regular bail of two Ryan International School officials, North India head Francis Thomas and HR head Jeyus Thomas, who were arrested in connection with the child's murder.
The Pinto family -- Augustine F. Pinto, his wife Grace and their son Ryan, had moved the High Court for anticipatory bail in the matter related to the murder of Pradhuman on September 8. Their arrest was earlier stayed till October 7.
The Haryana Police was investigating the case but later the state government transferred the case to the CBI.
Pradhuman's father, Barun Chandra Thakur on Tuesday had moved the Supreme Court challenging the grant of anticipatory bail to the Pinto family.
Thakur contended that the grant of anticipatory bail was "absolutely illegal, unwarranted, unconstitutional, erroneous..."
Pradhuman, a class two student of the school, was brutally murdered in the school toilet with his throat slit, within sometime of his father having dropped him.
