New Delhi:
The juvenile accused in the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi last month, will appear before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) today. The board has also summoned the headmaster of a school the accused studied in again, as it attempts to ascertain if he is indeed a minor as he claims.
The man, who says he is not 18 years old yet, is among six men accused of inflicting horrific injuries while raping and torturing the young woman in a moving bus on December 16 last. She died in hospital 13 days after the attack.
The board is still examining a school-leaving certificate that the headmaster had furnished last week, which reportedly shows that the accused is now 17 years and eight months old. The headmaster of the primary school in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, where the accused studied till Class 3, had also given other information to the board. The judge had, however, said he was not satisfied.
According to the law, if school documents attesting to a minor's age appear genuine, a juvenile should not be put through a medical test to confirm his age. The Delhi Police is reportedly keen for the minor to be put through a bone test to check his age.
The six men have been arrested for a crime that pierced India's conscience, triggering a wave of protests and demands for stronger laws to punish sexual offenders.
Partly because the police has said that the 17-year-old was the most depraved of the group, much attention is being paid to what sort of trial he will undergo. If proven a minor, the police will have to file an inquiry report detailing the juvenile's role in the brutal attack instead of a chargesheet, and the maximum sentence he will receive is three years at a reform facility. But if he is proven an adult, the boy will be tried in a regular court and charged with others arrested for the crime.
The five adult men have been charged with murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.
On December 16, the young student and her boyfriend were attacked relentlessly on a moving bus. The six men arrested allegedly hit them with an iron rod, then took turns raping her before throwing the couple onto the road and attempting to drive over them. Sources in the police say that of the six men who attacked the couple with unmitigated cruelty, the minor was the most vicious. They say he raped the student twice - once when she was unconscious.