December 16 gangrape: Delhi HC refuses to stay release of juvenile convict

The juvenile convict of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape of a woman moved closer to being freed on December 20 after the Delhi High Court said it could not extend his three-year sentence.

Despite government and police quests to keep the juvenile in custody, Delhi’s high court made a clear judgment Friday that it has no power to overturn the law.

“We want all the four convicts to be hanged”. The juvenile was tried under the Juvenile Justice Act and was sent to a remand home for three years.

The mother of the victim said she was “disappointed” with the ruling and that she would consider challenging the order in the Supreme Court. “The 2012 Delhi gangrape case juvenile convict should be detained until reformation is confirmed”, she said. “I feel as if our fight has ended in the middle”, Asha Devi, Jyoti Singh’s mother, told reporters outside the court.

“The terror that we had faced a few years back will be back on our streets on December 20”, he added, referring to the release date.

I understand that the Governments and the Courts are bound by the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and that is why probably are not being able to detain the boy longer than three years in the Observation Home. While Swamy said that even after the court order the juvenile will not be roaming free – his movement will be monitored by a management committee for two years, Nirbhaya’s parents rued that justice has not been done. The assurance we were given was that we will get justice, but that has not been delivered.

The victim, who was brutally assaulted by six persons, including the juvenile, in a moving bus in south Delhi, had succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital plunging the country into grief. She also said earlier in the day prior to the court’s decision that “if he is released, his face should be shown to the world”.

The rapist, who is now 21 was the cleaner of the bus the paramedical student and her friend boarded the fateful night of December 16, 2012. “The Additional Solicitor General, who appeared in Subramaniam Swamy’s application opposing the release (of the juvenile), also shared the central agency’s assessment report with the court”, he said.

The Delhi government’s Woman and Child Development department has announced a onetime grant of Rs 10,000 and a sewing machine to help him rehabilitate.