The Supreme Court on Friday, 20 July, rejected the bail plea of the 16-year-old accused of killing a seven-year-old student in a private school in Gurgaon. SC also maintained that the alleged crime fell under the category of “heinous offence,” and not “serious offence”.
THE INCIDENT
On 8 September 2017, the accused had allegedly slit the throat of a seven-year-old student in his school in an attempt to get exams postponed and a scheduled parent-teacher meeting cancelled. The victim’s body was found in the school’s washroom.
Gurgaon police had initially arrested Ashok Kumar, the school bus conductor, in connection with the crime. However, after the CBI took over the case on 22 September, the conductor was given the clean chit.
LAWYER SPEAK
Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, appearing for the accused, argued that according to the Juvenile Justice Act, no child can be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
He also asserted that if the 16-year-old is to be sentenced to life imprisonment, the alleged crime will fall under the category of “serious offence” not of “heinous offence”. The lawyer insisted that his client could be granted the benefit of default bail, since the stipulated period for filing the charge sheet is 60 days for serious offences, and the charge sheet in this case had been filed in 89 days.
Sushil Tekriwal, advocate for the victim's father, opposed the accused’s bail plea.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID...
The apex court bench comprising Justices RF Nariman and Indu Malhotra observed that the alleged crime continued to fall under the “heinous offence” category. They maintained that life sentence could be given with a possibility of remission.
The court pointed out that Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code falls under the category of heinous offence, in which case the charge sheet was to be filed within 90 days. Hence, the court said: “The special leave petition is dismissed. Pending applications stand disposed off.”
THE CASE SO FAR
The accused had been challenging the February order of a Gurgaon sessions court which had rejected his bail plea.
On 21 May, the sessions court had upheld the decision of the Juvenile Justice Board and said that the juvenile would be tried as an adult.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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