Ryan school murder; court will consider culprit as adult

All we know that the culprit who is below 18 will consider as a juvenile and their cases will deal with juvenile court, but here is an incident that 16-year-old student of Ryan International School apprehended in connection with the murder of a schoolmate will be tried as an adult, said the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) in Gurugram on December 20.

The Board, ruling on the application of the victim’s father, said that the juvenile delinquent would be tried as an adult and produced before the sessions court on December 22.

Sushil Tekriwal, the lawyer of the victim’s father, welcomed the verdict terming it as a “turning point” in the high-profile case. “The verdict of the board that the juvenile will be treated and tried as an adult is historic. The juvenile will now be produced before a sessions court and the judge will then assign the case to the relevant Child Sessions Court for the trial,” said Mr. Tekriwal, coming out of the JJB after the verdict.

He further added that the verdict meant that the juvenile if convicted, would not be set free after three years and could be sentenced to even 14 years in jail. Replying to a query, Mr. Tekriwal said: “In case of conviction, the juvenile will stay in the Observation Home until the age of 21. But as per Section 21 of the JJ Act, he cannot be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.”

Mr. Tekriwal said that he was yet to receive the copy of the order, but the court had broadly based its decision on the findings of the Social Investigation Report and the Psychological Report of the juvenile and the amendments carried out in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 with effect from January 15, 2016. The two reports had indicated that the juvenile was hyper-aggressive, upset and restless.

Moving an application seeking the trial of the juvenile as an adult on November 15, the victim’s father had argued that the manner in which the throat of the seven-year-old was slit showed that the crime was “chilling”, “horrific” and “serious” in nature.