File photo: Union Minister Maneka Gandhi
Ahead of the release next month of the juvenile convicted for fatal gangrape of a student in 2012, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said she would ask authorities to keep a 'close watch' on him.
Expressing her helplessness in extending punishment to him, the minister said while law was adhered to, she was not sure whether the justice was done in one of the most gruesome cases.
She advocated a 'close watch' on the juvenile who would be freed next month after completing the sentence in December 16 gangrape and murder case in 2012.
On whether she has taken up the monitoring issue with the authorities, Ms Gandhi said, "I will do it."
Reacting to the impending release of the accused, the minister said: "Let us not confuse justice with the law. The law said that he could only go to children home... That's the anomaly we are trying to correct. So he served his sentence and in according to the law he is coming out. And there is nothing we can do about it until or unless he commits another crime. So that is all we can do.
"I don't know whether the justice has been served but certainly the law has been adhered to," the minister said.
On December 15, the juvenile found guilty in the 2012 Delhi gangrape, will be released. He has turned 21 and will complete his three-year term at the prohibition centre.
He was 17-and-a-half, the youngest of six men who raped and brutally tortured the 23-year-old medical student on a moving bus in the national capital. The victim died 13 days later in a hospital in Singapore where she was taken for the treatment by the government.
Four other men found guilty in the case are on death row. One died in jail.