Delhi gangrape: Verdict on juvenile accused deferred to 19 Aug

New Delhi: The judgement in the December 16 gangrape case involving a minor was on Monday deferred till 19 August by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) pursuant to a direction of the Supreme Court. The JJB presided over by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel postponed the verdict for 19 August considering the fact that the Supreme Court has asked it not to pronounce its order till it decides a petition concerning the interpretation of the term “juvenile”, police sources said. [caption id=“attachment_1010285” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of the juvenile accused being taken to court. IBNLive[/caption] They said the board also posted for 19 August its order on sentence against the juvenile in a case in which he was earlier convicted for robbing a carpenter onboard the bus before allegedly assaulting the girl and her friend on the night of 16 December, last year. The JJB’s order was put off in the light of the plea of Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy for a fresh interpretation of the term ‘juvenile’ which he raised in the wake of the 16 December incident in which a 23-year-old woman was brutally gangraped and assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi. She died in a Singapore hospital on 29 December leading to slapping of charges of murder against the juvenile and other co-accused. The apex court had on 13 July asked Swamy to inform the JJB not to pronounce its verdict on the alleged role of the minor in the 16 December gangrape and murder case, till it decides the PIL. Swamy’s plea will come up for hearing before the apex court on 14 August. He has sought that the “mental and intellectual maturity” should be considered instead of age limit of 18 years for such offenders while fixing their culpability and contended that his plea would become infructuous if the JJB went ahead with pronouncement of its verdict. The inquiry against the juvenile in the gangrape and robbery case had concluded on 5 July and the board had reserved its judgement for 11 July. Since then, the Board’s verdict has been deferred thrice, once on 11 July, then on 25 July and today (August 5). Besides him, the four adult accused–Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur–are being tried by a special fast-track court. Proceedings against key accused Ram Singh were abated after his death on 11 March when he was found hanging in his cell in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. The police has in its charge sheet said the juvenile was the most brutal of all the accused. However, during the inquiry before the JJB, the juvenile claimed he was innocent. A native of Uttar Pradesh, the minor had moved to Delhi at the age of 11. He has been convicted for robbing a carpenter, Ramadhar, with the other adult co-accused by luring him into the same bus in which the girl was gangraped and assaulted. He has been held guilty under section 395 (dacoity), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 412 (dishonestly receiving property stolen in the commission of a dacoity) of the IPC. The carpenter had identified the juvenile as one of the accused on board the bus. The minor, however, was acquitted under section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of the IPC. PTI