NEW DELHI: Delhi does not want the juvenile criminal in the December 16, 2012, gangrape to go scot-free, but the police think it is fine for him and safe for the city’s women if he walks the streets again.
A confidential report by Central intelligence agencies prepared two months ago had said that the murderer-rapist, who has been lodged in an observation home, has been radicalised after coming in contact with another juvenile involved in the 2011 Delhi High Court blasts. The Delhi Police said there is no evidence to arrest him, even though it did not bother to interrogate him, or the other juvenile who is accused of radicalising him. A top officer’s explanation was that nobody had complained, in spite of the Union home ministry inviting observations on the criminal’s state of radicalisation. The capital’s protectors in khaki, who sit in their heavily protected offices at Police Headquarters, have refused to book the violent criminal under relevant sections of the National Security Act (NSA).
The home ministry sought an opinion from the police over booking the “radicalised” rapist—now 20 years and seven months old—under NSA since he is deemed to be a threat to society. The police, in their wisdom, having “thoroughly interacted” with their legal department, have informed the ministry that they cannot book him under NSA. In the report, the Delhi Police has stated that there is “no prima facie evidence” on the juvenile being a threat to national security.