HYDERABAD: The city police have decided to seek trial of the minors accused in the Jubilee Hills gang-rape case as adults to ensure that they receive maximum punishment. Two of the accused minors are the son and nephew of an AIMIM MLA while a third is the son of a politician holding an important position in a key Telangana government body.
In 2019, a 17-year-old was awarded two life sentences by a local court in Hyderabad after he was tried as an adult for sodomising and murdering a 10-year-old boy.
DCP D Joel Davis said police will request the juvenile justice board (JJB) to recommend that the minors allegedly involved in the gang rape be tried as adults. “We are focusing on collecting evidence. Once the chargesheet is filed, we will ask the JJB to recommend that they be tried as adults,” the DCP said.
The police had announced on Tuesday the arrest of six people, including five minors, in the gang-rape of the 17-year-old survivor in a parked car. Under the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015, offences for which the minimum punishment is imprisonment for seven years or more are classified as heinous.
Since all the minors in the case were booked for committing a heinous offence and they are all aged above 16, the JJB will first make a preliminary assessment with regard to their mental and physical capacity to commit such an offence.
The board will also assess their ability to understand the consequences of committing such an offence and the circumstances, under which they allegedly committed the offence as per Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act, and may pass an order that there is a need for trial of the said minor as an adult. “In such a scenario, the JJB orders transfer of the trial of the case to the jurisdictional children’s court,” public prosecutor K Pratap Reddy said.
In such cases, the minors are lodged in a juvenile home till they turn 21 years old.
In 2019, a 17-year-old was awarded two life sentences by a local court in Hyderabad after he was tried as an adult for sodomising and murdering a 10-year-old boy.
DCP D Joel Davis said police will request the juvenile justice board (JJB) to recommend that the minors allegedly involved in the gang rape be tried as adults. “We are focusing on collecting evidence. Once the chargesheet is filed, we will ask the JJB to recommend that they be tried as adults,” the DCP said.
The police had announced on Tuesday the arrest of six people, including five minors, in the gang-rape of the 17-year-old survivor in a parked car. Under the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015, offences for which the minimum punishment is imprisonment for seven years or more are classified as heinous.
Since all the minors in the case were booked for committing a heinous offence and they are all aged above 16, the JJB will first make a preliminary assessment with regard to their mental and physical capacity to commit such an offence.
The board will also assess their ability to understand the consequences of committing such an offence and the circumstances, under which they allegedly committed the offence as per Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act, and may pass an order that there is a need for trial of the said minor as an adult. “In such a scenario, the JJB orders transfer of the trial of the case to the jurisdictional children’s court,” public prosecutor K Pratap Reddy said.
In such cases, the minors are lodged in a juvenile home till they turn 21 years old.
