New Delhi: A 14-year-old rape victim's plea challenging a Juvenile Justice Board order declaring the accused boy as a juvenile allegedly without any inquiry, has led Delhi High Court to stay the order and seek a response from the police on the matter.
Justice IS Mehta also issued notice to the boy and asked him to clear his stand on the allegation raised on his age before the court.
Besides the notice to the cops and the accused, the court stayed the operation of Board's order of December 8, 2016, declaring the accused as a minor.
It asked the Delhi Police to file a status report with regard to the determination of age of the accused before the next date of hearing on March 22.
"The operation of the impugned order dated December 8, 2016 shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing. Trial Court record be called for and made available two days before the next date of hearing," the court said.
The court's order came on a plea by the minor's mother who alleged that the "IO produced some photocopied documents from a private school in Haryana, once attended by the accused, and the Juvenile Board without giving any intimation notice or any opportunity to the prosecutrix or her family members, treated the cryptic and designedly superficial report of the IO on the respondent No 2 (accused) age as the gospel truth without calling on or making any inquiry".
As per the petition by the girl's mother, Investigating Officer (IO) of Delhi Police and the JJB declared the accused a minor, but the girl and her mother claimed he was at least 20 years old at the time of the crime.
The girl and the accused became friends on Facebook and had decided to meet on November 8, 2016. When she went to meet him, the boy had allegedly kidnapped her, forcibly intoxicated her and then raped her in a car, the plea claimed.
The girl had lodged a complaint with the Bawana police station in New Delhi, but the IO kept changing her stand on the age of the accused, the plea alleged.
