Hang Him:

Nov 25/2015 : In less than a month, the lone juvenile convict in the 16 December 2012 Delhi gang rape case that shook the nation’s collective conscience, is set to walk free. This has prompted the victim’s parents to turn to the National Human Rights Commission, saying that the offender who is now 21 years old is not truly reformed and still poses a threat to society. They have asked that the government set up mechanisms to monitor him after he is released December 15. The parents have asked the Rights’ Panel to recommend that a plan be prepared to “keep a strict check” on the culprit so that no person lives in risk of “being harmed”.

It is doubtful that the three years this man has spent in the juvenile home has given him a chance to reform. Especially seen in the background of the ghastly manner in which a defenseless young woman was brutalized by this criminal when he was supposedly juvenile will never be forgettable for anyone who has kept track of the details of this case. His co-accused have repeatedly said that he was the prime mover who committed all the gory acts. Juvenile or not, the Indian legal system and the laws we have in place in this country have all come under a cloud because people have simply lost faith that justice will be done.

Besides, the whole idea of reform that is behind sending the boy to a juvenile home for three years is negated by the kind of life that a person leads in these places and the circumstances that prevail there. The logic of reform is defeated because juvenile homes are not gated colonies where the other inhabitants are men of good character who can impress a young mind to look at the world differently. When criminal tendencies surface early in life for an inpidual, it can safely be said that she or he will be accomplished in anti-social activities when life adds further experiences.

The 2012 gang rape is not an isolated one where a person who is guilty of a heinous crime has escaped befitting harsh punishment simply by dint of being a juvenile as the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 does not permit treating minor offenders in the same manner as adults as it does not distinguish between petty crimes and heinous offences. A Mumbai court had in July 2014 similarly dealt with kid gloves with two minors who had been convicted in the Shakti Mills gang rape case.

This stand is far removed from reality as the juvenile crime graph is rising alarmingly, with a large proportion being in the 16-18 age group. Of the 2,144 juveniles allegedly involved in rape in 2014, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, 1,488 were in the 16-18 age group. As many as 844 of the 1,163 juveniles accused of murder that year belonged to the same age group.

It should also be noted that with the Act seemingly leaning in favour of juveniles accused of crime, the victims often feel that they have not got justice. This also applies to the December 2012 gang rape case.

How an accused is treated should be based solely on his involvement and specific acts while committing the crime. No sane juvenile would have the courage to commit a serious crime. At the same time it may be added that no juvenile criminal can be said to have a sane mind. This is not to say that a claim of insanity for a mercy bargain should be accepted for these underage criminals. On the other hand, these sane but insensibly evil juveniles do not deserve any mercy. As a thumb rule, anyone who is incapable of showing mercy to a helpless victim should never be doled out mercy by the system. This juvenile of the Delhi gang rape incident, scheduled to walk free from December 15, should be hanged till death on December 16, 2015.