Bengaluru: With the youngest accused in the three-year-old infamous 2012 Delhi gang-rape case about to be set free by the Delhi High Court, because a juvenile cannot be kept for more than three years in a correctional home under the Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection) Act, 2000, a rare case of alleged mindless brutality by a juvenile boy in Karnataka has shaken the conscience of law makers.
The juvenile, now in a government correctional home in Sumanahalli in Bengaluru, had allegedly raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl in his house in Mysuru seven months ago, when he was 17 years old.
The accused is now 18 and is in the correctional home, which is managed by ECHO - a voluntary organisation for care and protection of destitute children and children in conflict with law.
According to sources, Deepak (name changed) had allegedly befriended a seven-year-old girl in the neighbourhood. One evening he took her to the terrace of his house and raped and subsequently killed her.
“Next morning he poured petrol on the girl's body and burnt her. There's another unconfirmed version according to which he had raped the child next morning, before setting the body on fire. The neighbours grew suspicious over foul smell and alerted the police, who sent the special juvenile police unit to Deepak's house and produced him before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB). After the trial, the JJB sentenced the boy to three years in the special home for reform and rehabilitation,” said an official source.
Deepak's mother is a government employee and a self respecting single parent. “She has very high aspirations for him and refuses to believe that her son could have indulged in such a gory crime,” the source added. There are around 28 juvenile offenders in the special home in Sumanahalli, who are being trained and counseled to change the course of their grisly past and join the mainstream society as useful citizens.
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