GURUGRAM: The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on Monday ruled that a teenaged boy accused of murdering a Class 2 student on the campus of a private school in the city in 2017 will be treated as an adult. The order, which comes after the accused’s psychological assessment by experts at PGI Rohtak and a closed-door interview by the full JJB, is the second sending the minor to the adult justice system. The JJB’s previous order, in 2017, was scrapped by the Punjab and Haryana high court and then by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The Supreme Court, which found procedural lapses in the JJB’s proceedings, had left it to the board to decide if a psychological evaluation would be relevant at this point of time. The boy accused of murder was 16 years, 5 months and 5 days old at the time of the crime – on September 8, 2017. He is 21 now and has been at an observation home. The JJB’s principal, Jetin Gujral, passed an oral order on Monday to treat the juvenile as an adult and directed him to appear before an additional session court on October 30. The written order will be shared soon. Sushil Tekriwal, the counsel for the victim’s father, said, “In our submission, we highlighted that the accused was fully, mentally and physically, capable of committing the offence. He was also capable of meticulously planning and executing the crime with criminal intent. We also argued that he was mentally mature enough to understand the consequences of the crime,” said Tekriwal. CBI counsel Amit Jindal told the JJB the minor accused had executed the crime in a well-planned manner with a clear understanding of its consequences. Highlighting the contents of the charge sheet filed by the CBI, he said internet search results of the accused’s computer showed he searched for topics like how to erase fingerprints and use rat killers. The counsel for the accused could not be reached for a comment. The JJB began fresh proceedings in July and formed a panel of experts to assess the intelligence, maturity and physical fitness of the juvenile to answer the key question – whether he understood the consequences of his offence. On September 19, the juvenile was taken to PGIMS Rohtak for an assessment. In its order on July 13, the Supreme Court bench of justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Vikram Nath upheld the Punjab and Haryana high court order of 2018 for a fresh assessment of mental, physical and emotional maturity of the juvenile to decide whether he should be tried as an adult. The bench also noted in its judgment that none of the parties had tried for an early hearing in the case.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/school-murder-case-gurugram-juvenile-to-be-tried-as-adult/articleshow/94927627.cms