Worrying signals from Delhi’s underbelly: Juveniles being used to settle gang scores

The gunfire in a packed Karkarduma district court room on 23 December – a policeman was killed and an undertrial suffered injuries in the incident – has exposed a new side of Delhi’s underbelly. Minors are increasingly being used as ‘contract killers’ to eliminate rivals by gangs and crime syndicates.

The two teenagers who let loose the volley of bullets inside courtroom number 73 at about 11.10 am killing head constable Ram Kunwar Meena of Delhi Armed Police 3rd Battalion, were allegedly recruited by the gangs of Abdul Nasir alias Khyber Hayat to eliminate rival undertrial gangster Irfan alias Cheena Pehalwan.

The juveniles, according to police sources, are from Dakshinpuri and Madingir areas of south-east Delhi. The areas, including Sangam Vihar, says a senior police official associated with the southern range, have at least seven criminal gangs and each one of them have minors to execute planned operations ranging from dacoity, robbery to killings.

“Underprivileged and drug addict teenage boys are being recruited by these notorious gangs from these educationally and financially backward areas on a large scale. The gangsters and their minor recruits enjoy symbiotic benefits –the teenagers get the power of the gangs they are associated with and juveniles make the best recruits as they are let off with light sentences because the law is soft on them,” the officer told Firstpost.

He said rules are so soft on minors that they are not even called “accused”, the legal term for them is “juvenile in conflict with the law” and the police are not allowed in such cases to make a noting of a crime as  case history, as it does in the case of every adult criminal. “We cannot arrest anyone under 18 years. We have dossiers on every criminal but we cannot maintain such records for juvenile offenders despite having proper information because of legal constraints. Therefore, it becomes difficult to trace their past records,” he added, hoping that things will change once the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2015, becomes an Act.

The proposed Act aims to replace the existing Indian juvenile delinquency law, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, so that juveniles in conflict with law in the age group of 16–18 years, involved in heinous offences, can be tried as adults in certain cases. The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on 22 December 2015 after getting the nod from the Lok Sabha on 7 May 2015.

In the last eight months, the Delhi Police have apprehended a large number of minor boys from all across the national capital. Police believe this increasing trend of juveniles taking to street crime is something to worry about. Most of the apprehended minors told police personnel that they rob and snatch on the roads so that they can lead a lavish lifestyle with the stolen money.

The crimes committed by minors are not restricted to robbery and theft. Some of them have now turned to committing murders for small amounts to make quick bucks. Sometimes, innocent people are killed in cases of mistaken identity or from stray shots – which is exactly what happened in the court shooting where the cop faced the stray bullets and finally succumbed to his injuries.

In 2014, 81 cases of murder were reported in which juveniles were involved. This number stood at 41 till August this year in addition to 417 cases of robbery and snatching against 397 reported last year and 12 cases of dacoity against 18 last year.

“Delhi’s underbelly has witnessed a paradigm shift,” say experts explaining “from picking pockets, the gangs have moved on to robbing and killing, because of the hike in property rates over the past 20 years”. “The gangsters have ventured into the real estate business. They either themselves acquire, or help realtors acquire, disputed properties. At some places, they even created dispute where there was none. Now, the situation has reached such a point that no property in most parts of outer Delhi can be sold off without their wishes. Sometimes, they provide protection to the landowners in exchange for their share. However, if differences come up between them, it leads to deadly results,” says an officer associated with Crime Branch on condition of anonymity.

And in this game, minors are being used in “horrifying” numbers, he concluded.

As per a data accessed by news agency Indo Asian News Service last year, those below 18 committed an average of six crimes every day.

The data suggests that juveniles were also involved in heinous crimes with 111 cases reported in 10 months. Juveniles were also booked in 70 murder and 74 attempt to murder cases.