Shocking! UP cops violate Juvenile Justice Act, Nepali kid spends one year in Noida jail
NEW DELHI: Yet another shocker from UP Police! Cops in Noida violated the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, resulting in the incarceration of a 16-year-old juvenile from Nepal. They had omitted to mention his age in the FIR, and hence the minor has spent the last one year in Noida jail, meant for hardened criminals and rapists. He was 15 when he was “arrested”. Under law, a minor should be sent to a juvenile correction home.
The jail authorities and UP Police have ignored the several claims made by the juvenile that he is a minor and he should be sent to observation home rather than prison.
The UP police told The Sunday Standard that they were not aware of his juvenile status. Station House Officer Bijendra Singh of Sector 49 Police Station, under whose supervision the juvenile was “arrested” and sent to prison, said: “At the time of arrest, there were no documents of his identity on him. Chargesheet has been filed by the police and the case is in the sessions court. The Nepali citizen and one more are under arrest and the other two fled.”
Satya Prakash of NGO Childline, who is pursuing the case, however, refuted Singh’s claims. He stated: “As per the law, it is illegal to hold a juvenile in an adult prison. According to his birth certificate from Nepal, he is 16 years of age. This is gross injustice to the child. While hearing the case, the judge should have asked the police for a bone test done to verify the age if documents were not available immediately.”
The juvenile, a resident of Surkhet district in Nepal as per his birth certificate, was apprehended in November last year after an FIR was registered. The juvenile, along with another man, was caught for smuggling liquor and ganja into Noida from Haryana. Four people were accused in the case; two fled the spot while the juvenile and one more remained in the car and were “arrested”.
Satya Prakash of NGO Childline said a fellow villager of the juvenile with promise of work lured him to Delhi. Later, he was put to work in a shop that sold alcohol illegally. After the case was filed, he was booked as an adult due to lack of proof of his age. The juvenile managed to get a word out to his family in Nepal through a fellow inmate, who happened to be a Nepali citizen. His farmer parents—Dil Bahadur and Mansara—contacted the NGO and the embassy of Nepal in Delhi with the required documents. For the last six months, the juvenile is being tried as an adult.