Juvenile Crime Rocks Delhi

In a horrific incident, six students of classes X and XI of Dadri's Ishwar Chand Inter College in Delhi, beat a schoolmate to death. The battering followed a heated argument that begun with a student accidentally staining the victim's shirt with ‘pan masala' spit.

According to the police, Navin, a class XI student, died after he was kicked, punched and beaten with chappals by the students. Dadri police said one of the assailants had, possibly by mistake, stained Navin's shirt on Wednesday. There were heated arguments over this but the school authorities had intervened to defuse the matter.

"Then, about 1 pm on Thursday, the six students who were involved in the spat with Navin, cornered him near the gate of the school, which is near chief minister Mayawati's village, Badalpur. As the students were bashing up Navin, he fell unconscious," a police officer was quoted.

Navin was then rushed to the district hospital in Ghaziabad, where he died in the evening. "A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered. One of the accused, Bhagat, has been arrested while five are absconding,” the officer said. Navin, a resident of Dadri, was the son of a small-time businessman.

Meanwhile, two minors convicted in the sensational Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) rape case, which rocked the capital four years ago, were set free by the Delhi High Court. This was on the ground that they had undergone the maximum sentence of three years under the Juvenile Justice Act.

The two boys were convicted by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on September 03, 2003 and ruled that they be kept in the remand home till they attain the age of 18. One is going to be a major in December this year and the other in December next year.

Accepting the appeal filed by the two juvenile convicts challenging the order, a Division Bench of Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sajeev Khanna directed the JJB to release other juveniles, who have been kept in the home for more than three years, in the light of this order.

The bench further ordered the Registrar-Vigilance of High Court to visit Juvenile Homes in the city and file a report giving details about the basic amenities provided to the children.

Appearing for these two children, counsel Subha submitted before the Bench that according to the new Juvenile Justice Act, a juvenile convict could be kept in the home for a maximum period of three years. However, these children have been in the home for more than four years since their conviction, she submitted, which was illegal detention.

There were four persons involved in the rape, apart from these juveniles. The juveniles had pleaded guilty to the charge of committing rape in 2003 and were accordingly convicted. Two were acquitted while two more were awarded life sentence.

The convicts had waylaid their victim and raped her at knifepoint on the roof of the famous Mughal monument - Khooni Darwaza - opposite Ferozeshah Kotla grounds.

Source-Medindia
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