SC to hear December 16 gang-rape plea

The juvenile convict in the December 16 gangrape was today released and sent to an NGO at an undisclosed destination with police no longer guarding him, amid continued protest by the victims parents.

After a half-hour hearing on Monday, a two-judge bench dismissed the petition, noting that the law prevented the court from ordering a further period of detention.

Six persons, including the juvenile, had assaulted and raped Nirbhaya in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012.

The juvenile, who was under 18 years of age when he was arrested for the brutal rape and brutalisation of the para-medical student who died of her injuries later, was tried under the Juvenile Justice Act.

According to the Washington Post, hundreds gathered in New Delhi, India on Sunday to protest the release of one of the New Delhi rapists. Four of the adults were sentenced to death while the fifth hanged himself in prison.

The Supreme Court dismissed Ms Maliwal’s plea, saying: “There has to be a clear legislative sanction” in this regard.

The Special Leave Petition filed by DCW against the order of the Delhi High Court, which refused to restrain the release of the convict, was referred by the Chief Justice of India T S Thakur before the vacation bench.

Protesters are demanding the man, who was 17 years old when he participated in the 2012 attack, remains in custody unless there is evidence he has been reformed.

The convict, now 20, was released on Sunday evening from a correctional home.

The ruling was greeted with despair by the parents of the victim, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh, who has become the symbol of the plight of women in a country with frightening levels of sexual violence. Police accused the teenager of being violent, and said he pulled out part of the woman’s intestines with his hands.

The convict’s identity is being changed and no record of his crime will remain in the public domain, a move that has caused more outrage among many in India, our correspondent says. “But this is a very wrong decision”, he said about the convict being set free.