NEW DELHI: The teenager, who ran over a 32-year-old marketing executive, became the first person to be tried under the new Juvenile law of the country with the Juvenile Justice board deciding that he would be treated as an adult as the offence committed by him fell under the “heinous” category.
According to the amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act, which was passed in Parliament in December last year and notified earlier this year, 16 to 18 year olds would be treated as adults if the crimes committed by them fall are heinous.
Amendments in the JJ act were passed following an uproar after a juvenile involved in the 2012 brutal Nirbaya gangrape case went scot free with just three years of detention in a juvenile home.
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 18 years of age just four days after the April 4 incident. 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 offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder entails a maximum of 10 years jail.
Police had argued that 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.
Initially, a case under IPC sections 304 A (causing death by rash or negligent act) was lodged against the teenager, but later on he was booked for the alleged offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to the reform home.
Police had said in its chargesheet that the boy had fatally run over victim Siddharth Sharma with his father’s Mercedes near Ludlow Castle School in north Delhi on April 4. The final report was filed for alleged offences under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 against him.