In the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, it was alleged that the most brutal was the minor who brutalized the victim with a rod and due to the juvenile law he was freed after three years. The subsequent offenders of heinous crimes have made clear that the statutorily determined maturity age of a person has only saved the perpetrators from the punishment of their offenses. In actuality, the crime committed by minors is of the same nature as by majors, and proportionality jurisprudence of punishment suggests the ratio of punishment must match the crime.
Gang rape of a 17 years old girl in Hyderabad
In a recent gang-rape case in Hyderabad, Deputy Commissioner of Police Joel Davis has revealed that five accused including two juveniles aged 16-17 have been identified. Moreover, the other two major accused Saduddin Malik & Omair Khan, both are 18 years old.
On May 28, promising the girl to drop her home from a pub at Hyderabad Jubilee Hills, the accused raped her in an Innova Vehicle. According to the police, after committing the crime, the accused dropped her back near the pub. From where she called her father, her father suspected some kind of assault and approached the police on May 31.
On the father’s complaint, police registered a case of sexual assault under section 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal code and sections 9 (Aggravated sexual assault) and 10 (Punishment for aggravated sexual assault) of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Later after the counseling girl revealed the rape and then the case was registered under section 376D (Gang rape) of the IPC and section 5 (Aggravated penetrative sexual assault) and 6 (Punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO Act.
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Treating all accused minors as major in the course of justice
Section 18 (Orders regarding child found to be in conflict with law) of the JJ Act (Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children Act), 2015 provides that if a Board is satisfied on inquiry that child irrespective of age has committed a petty offense, or a serious offense, or a child below the age of sixteen years has committed a heinous offense, the board will not allow them for trial (except in summoning cases, where a child is below 16 years and inquiry, is related to the heinous offenses) and will rather send them to ‘prescribed’ children care centers.
But section 14 (Inquiry by Board regarding a child in conflict with law) read with section 15 (Preliminary assessment into heinous offenses by Board) of the JJ Act states that in case of a heinous offense alleged to have been committed by a child, who has completed or is above the age of sixteen years, the Board shall conduct the psychological assessment of accused and accordingly be sent to the Children’s Court for a trial of the heinous offenses.
Further, section 19 (Powers of Children’s Court) of JJ Act, 2015 provides that based on the preliminary assessment from the board, the Children’s Court may decide that “there is a need for a trial of the child as an adult as per the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973”.
In a way, the law has been made strict to deal with children who have committed heinous crimes. Heinous offenses have also been defined under section 2(33) of the JJ Act, it states “heinous offenses included the offenses for which the minimum punishment under the IPC or any other law of the time being in force is imprisonment for seven or more”.
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And, the charges under which all of these accused in the Hyerdrabad rape case have been booked come under the definition of heinous crimes and provide rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than twenty years but may extend to life.
In a way, if proper procedures are followed, even the law will not save these monsters from facing the might of the law. Rape is the most inhuman and brutal assault on anyone, it not only breaks the physical body of a person but breaks the very soul and creates psychological fear & trauma in the victim. In this case, the victim girl is alleged to be 17 years old, and all of the offenders are of about the same age, if the crime is of an adult nature then all of the accused must be treated as an adult. With the establishment of a fast-track court, quick justice must be brought and a precedent must be set that in the future no offender will escape after committing such heinous crimes.
