Pintos of Ryan group move HC to seek pre-arrest bail

MUMBAI:

Augustine

Pinto, founder of Ryan group of schools, and his wife Grace

Pinto

moved the

Bombay high court

for transit anticipatory bail on Monday—three days after a seven-year-old student was found murdered at Ryan International School in Gurgaon. Their son Ryan Pinto, CEO of Ryan

International

Group of Institutions, is in the process of approaching the court too.

Pintos’ counsel Niteen Pradhan mentioned the matter to cite its urgency before Justice A S Gadkari who said it would be heard on Tuesday.

The Pintos want temporary relief to enable them to seek a regular pre-arrest bail from a Haryana court since the case is registered in that state.

Mumbai-based Pintos deny any wrongdoing. They say that Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act is not applicable against them. Their case is also that the day-to-day affairs of the Gurgaon

school

are run by an autonomous management.

Haryana government had called for a criminal case against the school management and its owners under the Juvenile Justice Act over the tragic washroom murder of the Class II student. The child’s parents have demanded a CBI probe.

Section 75 of Juvenile Justice Act deals with cruelty to a child and punishment ranges from three to 10 years’ imprisonment. In several judgments, the Supreme Court has held that the power to arrest has to be exercised with due caution. “In pith and core, the police office before arrest must put a question to himself, why arrest? Is it really required? What purpose it will serve?” the court had said in a landmark 2014 verdict.

The law on arrests, under the Criminal Procedure Code, requires credible information and reasonable suspicion against a person when an offence is punishable with up to seven years of imprisonment.

Pintos started their first school in Mumbai in 1976. Four decades later, Ryan group has over 135 institutions. Augustine Pinto was born in Mangalore, Karnataka. He studied first at St Aloysius High School, Mangalore, and graduated in Economics from Loyola College, Chennai, before coming to Mumbai to find work in 1970s.