Court sends rape accused to Juvenile Justice Board

A boy accused of kidnapping and raping his minor lover has been directed by a Delhi court to appear before the Juvenile Justice Board here after it came to light that he was not a major at the time of the alleged incident.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) T R Naval allowed the plea of the accused that he was a minor and asked the court staff to send the complete case file to Juvenile Justice Board.

"It is held that the accused was not a major and he was a juvenile on the date of occurrence. So, I find merit in the application. Accordingly, Ahlmad is directed to send the case file complete in all respect including documents relating to bail, etc, to the Juvenile Justice Board..," the judge said and asked the boy to appear before the board on September 7.

The court passed the order on the plea of the mother of the accused for transfer of the case to the Juvenile Justice Board under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care And Protection) Act.

The boy, a resident of Trilokpuri here, is accused of kidnapping and raping a minor girl in 2007 with whom he was in love.

In the plea, the woman claimed that her son was innocent and he was falsely implicated by the police and girl's family due to caste difference as they were against this relation.

"Accused is an innocent person and belongs to balmiki samaj who fell in love with prosecutrix (girl). Both the girl and the accused were aged 17 years. She belongs to upper caste so her family members did not like her affair with him. He was picked up the IO and falsely implicated in the present case," the application said.

The mother of the accused claimed that her son was a minor at the time of the alleged
incident and he should be tried only before the Juvenile Justice Board.

The counsel for the accused had argued that even if age of the boy is determined as per ossification report and radiologist report, his age comes to less than 18 years on the day of occurrence of the alleged crime.

On the basis of several documents, the age of the accused in September 2007 came out to be over 17 years and less than 18 years, the lawyer said.

After going through the medical records and the birth certificate of the accused issued by
the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the judge said, "I come to the conclusion that it has been established on record that accused was a juvenile on the date of commission of offence."