New Delhi: One of the four upper caste men who are the accused in the case of the Hathras brutality that led to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit girl, could have been a minor at the time of the crime, The Quint has reported.
The report by Asmita Nandy (and Vivek Mishra) points to the fact that a state board exam marksheet accessed by the news portal shows that one of the accused four will turn 18 only on December 2, 2020. The brutal crime, involving gang rape, occurred on September 14 and the victim passed away on September 29.
The victim had named all four accused, including the minor, in her dying declaration to the magistrate.
The case is being handled by the CBI – which the accused’s brother told The Quint – had collected the marksheet only on October 14. Uttar Pradesh police had arrested all four of the accused by September 26, on charges of attempt to murder, gang rape and violations of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
“This also points towards lapses in the UP Police’s initial investigation,” the report observes.
Khabri Baba has tried reaching out to the brother of the accused who is purportedly a minor for comment, but has not been able to establish contact. This article will be updated if and when he comments on the finding.
It is unclear as to how the case will progress now. Several outlets, including Khabri Baba, had published the names of the accused and their respective ages as 20, 23, 26 and 35, according to what initial reports had said.
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act was amended in 2015 to allow ‘Children in Conflict with Law’ to be tried as adults in certain circumstances, according to an Indian Express explainer.
“The amended Act distinguishes children in the age group 16-18 as a category which can be tried as adults if they are alleged to have committed a heinous offence — one that attracts a minimum punishment of seven years,” it said.
The amendment was brought in the aftermath of the gang rape and murder of a woman on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012, in which one of the five offenders was a minor at the time of committing the crime. He was, however, not tried as an adult and is the only one of the accused persons who was not served the death penalty. Reports had said that the then-minor accused, who became a cook at a roadside eatery eventually, had shown little regret for the crime.
