Ryan International School bus conductor Ashok Kumar at his home

GURUGRAM: Lying on the charpoy at the next-door neighbour’s house in Ghamroj village, a day after he was released from Bhondsi jail, 42-year-old Ashok Kumar looked tired.

He gasped for breath every time he attempted to speak. His wife Mamta said he is running a fever for the past 10 days, and has barely eaten since Wednesday evening, when he was released, after he was arrested by Gurgaon police on September 8 as the prime suspect in the murder of seven-year-old Ryan International student Pradhyumn Thakur.

Describing his reason for admitting he was the killer before media on September 8, Kumar said, “Soon after the tragedy, some 5-6 cops picked me up and took me to the Sohna crime unit, where they administered two injections and electric shock, and thrashed me mercilessly. They forced me to admit I was the killer , while assuring me that after a fortnight, they would help me get a government counsel to help me fight my case. I fell unconscious and only came to my senses next when I was produced before media,” said Kumar in a feeble voice.

He, though, said he won’t be able to recognise the cops who tortured him, an allegation Gurgaon police has consistently denied.

Afterwards, he was incarcerated in Bhondsi jail for around two months. Kumar said had he stayed there for a little while longer, he would have died or gone insane. “I don’t think I could have survived more than a month more. Either I’d have died, or gone insane.” While he was not tortured inside jail, he said solitary confinement for a crime he hadn’t committed was enough to push him over the edge.

The sequence of events on September 8 are etched in his mind, he said. “I entered the campus through the main gate to use the washroom, when Harpal (gardener) asked me to pick up the still-breathing Pradhyumn. I regret doing so. Had I walked away, life would have been as always. After placing Pradhyumn in a car, I have no clue what happened next. In the washroom, I did not see any other student, not even the juvenile who has been arrested.”

This sequence, though, doesn’t tally with the one seen on CCTV footage, according to one of the people who has seen it. Wishing to remain unnamed, he said, “In the CCTV footage, we first saw Kumar enter the washroom, much before the juvenile or Pradhyumn did. Harpal is seen near the water cooler. Sometime later, the juvenile is seen cajoling Pradhyumn to accompany him into the washroom , and then leave.”

His only source of hope inside jail, said Kumar, was an official by the name of Syed Mohammed. “The place where I was kept was completely dark, with a tiny window. Unlike other prisoners, I was not permitted to come out of it. I longed to speak with someone. Mohammed kept a watch outside my cell. Over a period of time, he began taking care of me. He would often console me and assure me I’ll come out soon. I didn’t sleep a wink during my stay.”

Before his release on Wednesday, jail officials asked Kumar if he wanted anything from the canteen, to which he said “no”, with folded hands.

About the future, he said he won’t go back to Ryan or anywhere else. “I’ll live the rest of my life doing odd jobs like selling vegetables. Nobody from the school ever came to meet me, and I don’t expect them to either. But I want the government to compensate for my loss.”

The villagers plan to file a defamation case against the cops for wrongly implicating him.

“We’ll hold a meeting and decide on the defamation case against Gurgaon police. Those who have punished Ashok for no reason will have to pay,” said Khazan Singh, his neighbour.

