Three accused in the photojournalist gangrape case were produced before the magistrate court on Friday. Even as one of the accused wasn’t brought before the court after his family produced a “certificate” before the police stating that he was a minor, confusion prevailed over the age of another accused, Kasim Bangali, whose application stating that he was a minor was rejected by the court.
The remand copy presented in the court stated that the mother of the accused claimed that he was a minor and presented certain documents during the investigation. The copy stated that the documents presented by her would be certified and be presented before the juvenile justice board, where the final decision on his age will be taken. The police on Friday sent him to a remand home in Dongri after accepting documents collected during investigation seemed to indicate that he was a minor.
A senior police official said that as per the documents collected during investigation, the accused was a minor and was being treated likewise. If further medical examination results revealed otherwise, he would be treated as an adult.
Meanwhile, Bangali moved an application before judge Uday Padwad, stating that he was a minor and cannot be produced before a regular court. The judge, however, rejected his claim and observed that in 2012, when he was tried before a court in Girgaum in another case, he was treated as an adult. In addition, his physical appearance also does not suggest he is a minor, the judge observed.
“There’s a world of a difference between a regular trial and the one under the Juvenile Justice Act. In a regular trial, the maximum punishment can be life imprisonment in case of rape, whereas, when one is a juvenile, he is sent to the reformation home and the upper limit that he could spend there is three years. They cannot be called as ‘accused’ and are called boy juvenile or girl juvenile,” said eminent criminal lawyer Majid Memon.