Accused in Kathua case to be tried as adult: SC
NEW DELHI: Leniency towards juveniles is emboldening them to commit heinous crimes, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, as it sounded a note of caution for the government to consider whether the benevolent legislation under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act has served to be effective, or if the law should be re-examined in the light of increased role of juveniles in brutal crimes.
The court’s observations came in a judgment dealing with a plea by one of the eight accused in the brutal murder and gang rape of an eight-year-old tribal girl in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, in 2018.
A bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and JB Pardiwala directed the accused, Shubham Sangra, to be tried as an adult setting aside the October 11, 2019 decision of the J&K high court which held him to be a juvenile at the time of the incident. The 66-page judgment
The chief judicial magistrate of Kathua declares that Sangra be tried as a juvenile
SC transfers trial from Kathua to Pathankot after the victim’s family says they are being threatened. authored by justice Pardiwala said: “The manner in which brutal and heinous crimes havae been committed over a period of time by the juveniles and still continue to be committed, makes us wonder whether the Juvenile
Special court convicts six of the seven accused being tried before it
Justice Act, 2015 has subserved its object.”
The bench said: “We have started gathering an impression that the leniency with which the juveniles are dealt with in the name of goal of reformation is
SC stays proceed- ings before the Juvenile Justice Board against
Sangra
making them more and more emboldened in indulging in such heinous crimes. It is for the government to consider whether its enactment of 2015 has proved to be effective or something still needs to be done in the matter before it is too late in the day.”
The comments came in the backdrop of the barbaric Kathua rape and murder case where the minor girl belonging to the nomadic Bakarwal community in Rasana village was abducted by eight people, taken to a place of worship, drugged, and raped for several days. Later, she was strangled and her head was smashed with a stone. Her swollen body with bite marks and injuries was discovered by police a week later. A trial court in June 2019 held six out of seven people guilty, while the eighth accused, who claimed to be a juvenile, was tried separately.
“The crime that the accused herein has been charged with is heinous, its execution was vicious and cruel, by any stretch of imagination. The entire crime was calculated and ruthless,” the SC said.
Within months of the incident taking place, the Supreme Court in May 2018 shifted the trial of the case to Pathankot in Punjab, where it was conducted in-camera.