The Hyderabad police probing the gang rape case of a minor will be pushing for the under-18 accused to be tried as adults so that they do not get lighter punishment on account of being juveniles. The minors are amongst the five who have been arrested in connection with the rape of a 17-year-old girl that happened on the night of May 28th in the city’s Jubliee Hill area.
#Breaking | #Hyderabad rape case: Hyderabad Police to request the Juvenile Justice Board to recommended minors involved in the assault to be tried as adults.
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According to reports, the Hyderabad police will be filing an appeal with the Juvenile Justice Board to allow the minor accused to be tried as adults.
“We are focussing on collecting evidence. Once the charge sheet is filed, we will ask the JJB (Juvenile Justice Board) to recommend they be tried as adults,” Hyderabad DCP D Joel Davis told TOI.
Following a 2015 amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act, individuals aged 16 to 18 who are accused of a “heinous offence,” defined as a crime punishable by at least seven years in jail, may do so. However, the Act specifies three conditions for a court to recognise such accused as adults: mental and physical capability, ability to understand consequences, and the circumstances of the offence.
According to Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand, “to ensure maximum punishment,” the police would demand this in court.
As such, a minor cannot be sentenced to more than three years in prison under any circumstances. In this case, all minors are between the ages of 16 and 18, with one of them, the son of an AIMIM MLA, just a month short of becoming 18. The other minor accused also belong to politically influential families.
Earlier, reports had emerged about how the politically influential families of the five accused were using their political clout and influence to pressurise the victim’s family to drop charges against the accused.
According to the report, the accused’s family attempted to negotiate with the victim’s family through a few influential people, but the survivor’s family has been steadfast. The victim’s family has refused to give in to the pressure and has urged that the rapists be punished severely.
On 28th May 2022, a 17-year-old minor girl had gone to attend a party at the Amnesia and Insomnia Pub in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. The party was hosted by two of her friends. Some other boys also had met her in the same pub, from where she was taken in a Mercedes car and allegedly gang-raped by the accused. The Mercedes car in which the girl left the pub belongs to a TRS leader and an Innova car in which the crime took place belonged to a Waqf Board functionary.
