High Court seeks report on ‘radicalized’ juvenile

The bench asking the Centre to apprise it if it has taken any measures on post-release follow-up of the juvenile, said “it’s not an ordinary case”.

The appeals for four convicts are pending before the Supreme Court.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Friday said that the juvenile convict in the December 2012 Delhi gangrape case is an animal, and freeing him would be risky.

The court asked whether a management committee had been constituted as per the Juvenile Justice Rules, was it still in existence and what were its activities. The matter will be heard on 14 December, but the question which remains unanswered is, what next?

Swamy’s opposition to the juvenile’s release is on the ground that the juvenile was allegedly in close contact with a suspected militant in the juvenile home and his release, which is due on December 15, could, therefore, pose a danger to the society at large. Jasmeet also informed the court about the Intelligence Bureau report on how the juvenile, during his stay in the special home, had been radicalised.

The move assumes significance in the wake of an IB report that said the convict was brainwashed and motivated to join jihad in Kashmir during his stay at the Juvenile Welfare Home located at Majnu Ka Tila.

Dr. Swamy said there was a lacuna in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, as amended in 2011, as no provision had been made in the statute to provide for “vicious unregenerate convicted juveniles”, who despite having undergone the reformation process continued to be a menace to the society. The juvenile, who was under 18 when he was arrested for rape and murder of Nirbhaya, was tried under the Juvenile Justice Act and ordered to keep in a remand home for three years and is set to be released this month.