Juvenile crimes: Karnataka gets first ‘Place of Safety’
BENGALURU: The Karnataka Government has set up its first ‘Place of Safety’ for children aged between 16 and 18 who are in conflict with the law, under the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2015 .
Highly placed sources said, “Seven children, all boys aged between 16 and 18 years, who are allegedly involved in heinous crimes such as rape, murder and crimes under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, have been lodged in the ‘Place of Safety’.”
The facility at Madiwala was set up last week and is among the first such centres in the country. “Out of the seven juvenile offenders, six are from Bengaluru Urban district and one is from Madikeri. Of them, four have studied till Class 10 or Pre-University College (PUC). They were earlier lodged at the Observation Home for Boys at Madiwala, which houses 23 juvenile offenders aged between 6 and 18 years,” the source added.
The decision to send the juvenile offenders who have allegedly committed heinous crimes to the ‘Place of Safety’ is vested with the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which is headed by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) and comprises of two social workers.
“After the juvenile is produced before the JJB, Bengaluru, the Board sends the case to National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) and Montfort College for preliminary inquiry to find out whether the juvenile is mentally and physically capable of committing such a heinous crime and understands the consequences of the same. The experts also try to understand the socio-economic background of the juvenile offender. After receiving the inquiry report, the JJB decides whether the juvenile offender should be tried before a special court or the Board itself,” said another source, who is familiar with the juvenile justice proceedings.
Juvenile offenders who are tried before the special court are placed in the ‘Place of Safety.’ “The facility was the key addition to the JJ Act, 2000, after the infamous Nirbhaya gangrape case in Delhi in December 2012 in which one of the accused was a juvenile. The Act was repealed and replaced by a new JJ Act in 2015,” he added. “A juvenile can be held at the Place of Safety for a maximum of three years. If the quantum of his punishment remains after he attains 21 years of age, he will then be lodged in a separate enclosure in a regular prison,” he added.
Highlighting the ‘jugaad’ solution to problems in India, he said Indians do not believe in systems, processors, systems engineering and tend to lose more time.
Institutional Measures
Under the JJ Act, 2015, the institutional measures for children who are allegedly in conflict with the law include Government Observation Homes, which are temporary reception centres for juveniles during the pendency of inquiry; Special Homes which are meant for rehabilitation of juvenile offenders; Place of Safety, meant to lodge children aged between 16 and 18 who are in conflict with the law and are accused of or convicted of committing a heinous offence, and After Care, which is to assist a juvenile offender who leaves a child care institution on completion of 18 years of age with financial support to help him or her re-integrate in society.