In the much-awaited first-ever verdict in the December 16 gangrape case, the Juvenile Justice Board on Saturday pronounced the minor accused “guilty” of rape and murder. Then, as principal magistrate Geetanjali Goel, who presided over the JJB, sentenced him to three years to be served in a juvenile remand home, protests broke out.
Dissatisfied with the verdict, the victim’s mother broke down immediately and her brother allegedly tried to attack the accused. The relatives of the victim had been seeking the death sentence for all the accused in the Delhi gangrape case. The victim, a 23-year-old student now identified as “Nirbhaya”, was brutally gangraped in a moving bus by six persons in South Delhi on December 16 last year, and later succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29. While the victim’s family now plans to appeal against the JJB order, Mr Subramanian Swamy is expected to file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court. Mr Swamy claims the case should be before a sessions court under the IPC and not in the
Juvenile Justice Board.
The victim’s fuming brother, speaking to a television channel, said he would “avenge” his sister’s murder. Of the three-year sentence awarded to him, the juvenile accused, who is now 18, has already spent around eight months in custody, and this will be deducted from the term. Therefore the accused, who was allegedly the “most brutal” of the lot, is likely to serve two years and four months in a reformatory home. The counsel for the juvenile said the sentence was “subject to review”, which meant it could be decreased depending on “his behaviour in custody”. Under the juvenile justice law, no accused can be held for over three years.
The JJB held him guilty for offences under IPC Sections 377 (unnatural sex), 376 (rape), 302 (murder), 395 (dacoity), 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property knowing that it was obtained by dacoity), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention). He was also convicted under IPC Sections 342 (wrongful confinement), 364, 365, 366, 367 (kidnapping or abducting for murder, to defile a woman, etc), the police said. However, he was acquitted of the charge of attempting to murder the victim’s male friend.
His school records show that the youth was 17 years and six months old at the time of the crime. Though he turned 18 on June 4, 2013, the JJB, adhering to the law, continued to treat him as a minor.
The four other accused in the case (all adults) — Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur — are being tried before a fast-track court. Key accused Ram Singh was found hanging in Tihar Jail in March, and thus the case against him got aborted.
The premises of the JJB, which had deferred announcing the verdict four times earlier, was teeming on Saturday with both the national and international media. The victim’s family — her father, mother and brother — were present since the morning. “This day reminds me of December 17, when I saw my daughter in hospital,” her mother said before the verdict. “Earlier we prayed to God for her life, today we are praying to the JJB to give him the maximum punishment,” she said. After the verdict, the family became quiet upset and left the scene.