3-year term for juvenile rapist sparks outrage
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New Delhi: In the much-awaited first-ever verdict in the December 16 gang rape case, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Saturday pronounced the minor accused ‘guilty’ of rape and murder.
Then, as principal magistrate Geetanjali Goel, who presided over the JJB, sentenced him to three years to be served in a juvenile remand home, protests broke out.
The relatives of the victim had been seeking the death sentence for all the accused in the Delhi gang rape case.
The victim, a 23-year-old student now identified as ‘Nirbhaya’, was brutally gang raped in a moving bus by six persons in South Delhi on December 16 last year, and later succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
While the victim’s family now plans to appeal against the JJB order, Subramanian Swamy is expected to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.
Swamy claims the case should be before a sessions court under the IPC and not in the JJB. Of the three-year sentence awarded to him, the juvenile accused, who is now 18, has already spent around eight months in custody, and this will be deducted from the term of his sentence.
Next: Juvenile accused’s term in jail ‘subject to review’
Juvenile accused’s term in jail ‘subject to review’
New Delhi: The juvenile accused, is likely to serve two years and four months in a reformatory home. The counsel for the juvenile said the sentence was “subject to review”, which meant it could be decreased depending on “his behaviour in custody”.
Under the juvenile justice law, no accused can be held for over three years. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) held him guilty for offences under IPC Sections 377 (unnatural sex), 376 (rape), 302 (murder), 395 (dacoity), 412 (dishonestly receiving sto-len property knowing that it was obtained by dacoity), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention).
He was also convicted under IPC Sections 342 (wrongful confineme-nt), 364, 365, 366, 367 (kidnapping or abducting for murder, to defile a woman), police said. However, he was acqui-tted of the charge of attempting to murder the victim’s male friend.
His school records show that the youth was 17 years and six months old at the time of the crime. Though he turned 18 on June 4 the JJB, adhering to the law, continued to treat him as a minor.
Next: Victim’s mom for hanging
Victim’s mom for hanging
New Delhi: The victim’s mother broke down immediately after principal magistrate Geetanjali Goel of the Juvenile Justice Board announced the verdict.
She said it was too soft a punishment for the accused and he deserved to hang till death. ‘I will take revenge’
New Delhi: Nirbhaya’s brother too did not take kindly to the verdict and allegedly tried to attack the accused.
The fuming brother, speaking to a TV channel, said he would “avenge” his sister’s death who was died in front of his eyes and said that he would approach higher courts.
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