PIL to be filed this month in Shakti Mill convict case
Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh, a juvenile convict, was tried as an adult
A Public Interest Litigation will be filed in Bombay High Court this month for torture, illegal detention, violation of child rights and inaction by the Juvenile Justice Magistrate Board in the case of Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh, a juvenile convict who was allegedly tried as an adult in the Shakti Mills gang-rape case in 2013.
According to advocate Beena Tendulkar who represents Shaikh, “I shall be filing a Public Interest Litigation this month. It is the duty of the Juvenile Justice Board and Special Juvenile Police Unit to be quasi-parental. Instead Shaikh was threatened by the NM Joshi Marg police, the Bhoiwada Magistrate and Gauri Jadhav, Principal Magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board. Shaikh is completing his sentence of punishment in July this year at the Nashik remand home, as per the order of the JJB. I am expecting the PIL order before his release for the benefit of all juveniles. The future of children from 16 to 18 years is presently in danger.”
A letter has also been forwarded by the Bombay High Court to the principal secretary of Home Department to look into the matter in accordance with the law.
On December 9 ,2016, the Free Press Journal had published a report, ‘2 years on, still no report on Shakti Mills rape’. A letter was submitted by Mohan Vaydande and Prajit Patil, members of International Organization for Human Rights Protection and advocate Tendulkar along with the published article had been submitted in December to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court to take cognisance in this matter.
On January 30, the Home Department submitted a report to the Human Rights Commission as per the orders of Justice SR Bannurmath, Chairperson, Human Rights Commission.
As per the report, “Shaikh has been a victim of third degree torture by police officers of the NM Joshi Marg police station. No cognizance was taken by Gauri Jadhav, Principal Magistrate of Juvenile Justice Board. The police had kept Shaikh in police custody illegally from August 23 to 29 in 2013. He was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board only on August 30, 2013, which was a violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.
The Commission had found violation of Child Rights and Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act, 2006, by the investigating officer Manohar Dhanawade and the Magistrate for trying Shaikh as an adult and had kept him in police custody while he was a minor then.
“The police had not conducted the ossification tests for determining her client’s age. His date of birth certificate was tampered with by the police,” said Tendulkar.