06, Feb 2016

Feb 06 2016 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Anuja Jaiswal
Mainpuri:
Court Sends Him To Judicial Custody, Not Remand Home
A 16-year-old accused of raping a 9-year-old Dalit girl was on Friday sent to jail -and not a juvenile home -setting the stage for what might be the first trial of a minor as an adult following the amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act on December 23, 2015.
He was produced in court on Friday and sent to judicial custody for 13 days.
According to circle officer (city) Shailendra Lal, the suspect has been remanded in judicial custody as the fresh amendment in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act allows for juveniles aged 16 years or older to be tried as adults for heinous offences like rape and murder. Heinous offences are those which are punishable with imprisonment of seven years or more.
A major controversy has erupted in Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family borough of Mainpuri after the chief medical surgeon (CMS) of the district hospital, Dr Nimmi Begum, refused to treat a 9-year old Dalit rape survivor.
The girl was finally ad mitted to the hospital after police officers threatened the CMS with arrest. She was later shifted to the Saifai hospital after her condition deteriorated. The 9year-old, who is presently undergoing treatment at the UP Rural Institute of Medical Science and Research, Saifai, is reported to be in a “stable“ but “serious“ condition.
According to police officials, the girl, a resident of Tudri village, was on her way to graze cattle in the fields near her house around 6pm on Thursday when the boy accosted her and forcibly took her to a deserted spot where he allegedly raped her. The bleeding child was found lying in the fields by some villagers, who informed her parents and police.