Panchkula, Dec. 12 -- A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Panchkula has formally framed charges against four Haryana Police officers in the sensational 2017 murder case of a seven-year-old Gurugram schoolboy - a case that triggered nationwide outrage, and exposed grave lapses in the original police investigation. The officers facing trial are Narinder Singh Khatana, then SHO of Bhondsi police station; Birem Singh, then assistant commissioner of police, Sohna; Shamsher Singh, then sub-inspector at Bhondsi; and Subhash Chand, then ESI. All four have been charged under an array of Indian Penal Code provisions, including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 166A (disobedience of law), 167 (preparing an incorrect document), 194 (fabricating evidence to procure capital conviction), 330 (causing hurt to extort confession), and 506 (criminal intimidation). All accused pleaded not guilty. The court has scheduled January 22 as the next date for recording prosecution evidence and has summoned two witnesses. The case in question dates back to September 8, 2017, when the Class 2 student was found with his throat slit inside a washroom of his private school in the Bhondsi area of Gurugram. The gruesome discovery sparked massive public anger. The Haryana Police quickly arrested a school bus conductor, Ashok Kumar, alleging he had attempted sexual assault and then murdered the child. But widespread protests and persistent inconsistencies raised doubts. The victim's father approached the Supreme Court, which led the Haryana government to hand the case over to CBI. The CBI probe upended the original narrative. Investigators concluded that the Haryana Police had framed the conductor, allegedly employing torture to extract a confession and fabricating documents to bolster a false case - a conspiracy aimed at shielding the real culprit. A supplementary CBI charge sheet filed in January 2021 accused the four officers of deliberately planting evidence, coercing statements, and constructing an entirely false chain of events that, if accepted by a court, could have led to a death sentence for an innocent man. CBI later arrested a 16-year-old Class 11 student from the same school, alleging he had killed the boy to postpone upcoming exams and a scheduled parent-teacher meeting. The agency charged the juvenile under Section 302 (murder) after recovering evidence and witness accounts that contradicted the police version. A significant hurdle emerged when the Haryana government initially refused to grant sanction to prosecute the four officers. CBI challenged the decision before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which, in a January 24, 2025, order, quashed the refusal as "arbitrary" and directed a fresh review - clearing the path for the court to frame charges this week. According to CBI, the officers' actions not only derailed the investigation but caused severe physical and mental trauma to the bus conductor, who spent months in custody before being exonerated....