Number of juveniles being tried as adults in Gurugram surges

GURUGRAM: THAT MORE JUVENILE OFFENDERS ARE BEING TREATED AS ADULTS FOR HEINOUS CRIMES IS ONE CLEAR UPSHOT OF THE GURUGRAM SCHOOL MURDER, AND IN LINE WITH THE GLOBAL TREND, EXPERTS SAY

The number of juveniles in conflict with law who are tried as adults has increased three-fold in Gurugram since 2016, the year a law allowing such trials came into effect. However, the number of cases involving juveniles has also risen from 84 two years ago to 132 till September 5, 2018.

Crimes by juveniles came under the spotlight last year after an eight-year-old student, a second grader, was murdered in the toilet of a Gurugram private school on September 8. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) ruled in December that a 16-yearold boy, an 11th grader in the same school, arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on suspicion of committing the murder, be tried as an adult.

Twenty-five juveniles were tried as adults in 2017, about 22% of the 114 apprehended by the Gurugram police that year. The number has increased to 38 (of 132) in 2018 so far. Seven such suspects have already been convicted this year, and a trial is underway in 31 other cases, a JJB member said on condition of anonymity. In 2016, 13 juveniles were tried as adults, 15.47% of the total 84 who were apprehended.

The Juvenile Justice Act, which allows children aged between 16 and 18 years and in conflict with the law to be tried as adults in cases of heinous offences, took effect in January 2016. It came after widespread outrage over the relatively lenient punishment awarded to a minor convicted in the December 16, 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in Delhi.He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term. Four other convicts in the same case were sentenced to death.

That more juvenile offenders are being treated as adults for heinous crimes is one clear upshot of the murder in the Gurugram school that shocked residents, school administrations, educational authorities and law enforcers in what is known as Millennium City. That’s in line with the global trend, experts say.

“Trying juveniles as an adult is a worldwide practice. Juveniles above 16 are grown up mentally and are physically capable of understanding the consequences of the crime and deserve stringent punishment,” said Delhi-based social activist Vinod Mishra.