NEW DELHI: In a first, a teenager, who allegedly ran over a 32-year-old marketing executive while driving his father's Mercedes, will now face trial as an adult after the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) today said the offence allegedly committed by him was "heinous".
The Presiding Officer of the JJB passed the order on the application of Delhi Police which had sought transfer of the case to trial court to try as adult the accused who turned major just four days after the April 4 incident. It is the first of its kind case since the amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
As per section 2(33) of the Act, "heinous offences" include the offences for which minimum punishment under IPC or any other law for the time being in force is imprisonment for seven years or more. The police had on May 26 chargesheeted the juvenile in the JJB for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The JJB had reserved its order yesterday after hearing for over an hour arguments by Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava who had said the boy belongs to the age group of 16-18 years and this offence comes under definition of "heinous crimes" so his case should be transferred to the trial court.
Police had said in its charge sheet that the boy had fatally run over victim Siddharth Sharma with his father's Mercedes when Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi on April 4.
The Board had on April 26 granted bail to the youth who sought the relief to appear in entrance examinations. The youth had appeared before a Delhi court to surrender and moved a bail plea which was rejected on the ground that it was a matter of JJB and then produced before the board.