A local court here on Monday dismissed the bail application of the juvenile accused of murdering a seven-year-old student of a prominent private school and also imposed ₹21,000 fine on the appellant for wasting the court’s time on “baseless” litigation.
‘No ground’
The court also directed the media to henceforth use the imaginary names used in the judgment to refer to the persons or facts of the case. The court used “Prince” as the imaginary name for the seven-year-old victim and “Vidyalya” for his school.
Rejecting the bail application of “Bholu”, the imaginary name used in the judgment for the juvenile delinquent, Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu said in his order, “There is no ground for the default bail of the appellant at this stage”.
Dismissing the appeal, the court said it was not only devoid of merits but also calls for dismissal with costs. The court said the appellant knew well that a prayer for a default bail was premature at this stage and had still moved the bail application taking the valuable 28 of 90 days of the investigating agency. The court said it seemed that the appellant moved a vague application for bail, first before the Juvenile Justice Board and then before this court with some hidden agenda.
“To conclude, the conduct of the appellant indicates that he is taking court proceedings for a joyride. He has indulged in wasting precious court time in baseless litigation, on account of which seven court proceedings have gone down the drain.”
The court imposed fine of ₹21,000 or ₹3,000 for each of the seven proceedings on the appellant, the juvenile delinquent, through his father to be deposited within three months. The juvenile, in his appeal, took the plea that the Central Bureau of Investigation had not completed the investigation in the case within a prescribed period of one month as per Rule 10(5) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Model Rules, 2016, and sought benefit of statutory bail.
The CBI, opposing the bail, contended that the rule “nowhere speaks about completion of investigation within one month” and only the statements of the witnesses and documents were to be produced before the JJ Board within one month from the date of production of accused before it.
The court, in its judgment, said the proceedings would be conducted in-camera. Earlier, the Juvenile Justice Board had also rejected the bail application of juvenile on December 15.
