Juvenile Delhi gang-rape convict to walk free

New Delhi: The juvenile convict in the infamous 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case will walk free on December 20 after the Delhi High Court (HC) on Friday refused to grant a stay on his release.

But the order comes with riders.

He will be under the physical control of a specially set-up management committee for the next two years. His movement will be monitored by the committee and after two years it will take a call on whether he is fit to be released in society without any observation.

Hearing a petition against his release, the HC said that provisions of Juvenile Justice Act do not allow for detention for more than three years.

Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, who represented the Centre in Delhi HC, told Gulf News, “The court has directed in accordance with rule 73, 55 that a proper post-release plan [that] must include rehabilitation, integration and follow up should be prepared. The net effect of the order is that the request of keeping him beyond three years is declined. Juvenile in conflict with law will be released from correction home on December 20 and be allowed to be back with his family in his hometown.”

Reacting to the order, the victim Jyothi Singh’s mother, Asha Devi, said: “Even after all our efforts, the juvenile convict will now be released. The assurance we were given that we will get justice has not happened. A criminal has been let off. What message is this sending out to the public of the country? All I wanted was justice, but crime has won today.”

“Every day minors are being raped and gang raped in Delhi and elsewhere, who will ensure justice to them? Our fight was for the society. We cannot comment on the court’s ruling, but our fight against this injustice will continue. A harsh punishment to the juvenile would have sent a message to others,” her father, Badrinath, told Gulf News.

However, he expressed some satisfaction with the order that the juvenile be kept under watch for two years.

The court had earlier also sought an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report about the convict having been radicalised. The IB had raised suspicions that the juvenile became radicalised after being moved in with another juvenile apprehended in connection with the 2011 Delhi HC bomb blast case.

The court had also issued a notice to the government seeking its response on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary Subramanian Swamy’s plea against the release of the juvenile, now aged 21, until it is “demonstrably assured” he has reformed and was not a menace to society.

The 23-year-old paramedical student, Singh, was brutally sexually assaulted on the ill-fated night of December 16, 2012, and died 13 days later, triggering massive public outrage. A trial court had awarded the death penalty to four rapists, a sentence that was upheld by the high court. Of the six convicts, one was found dead in Tihar Jail and the juvenile was sent to a reform home. The appeals for four convicts are pending before the Supreme Court.