The Delhi High Court on Monday ordered immediate release of a murder accused after it was declared medically that he was a juvenile on the date of the incident in 2006.
The accused was charged by the Delhi Police with the murder of the Shangri-la hotel’s project manager here. The manager was allegedly a homosexual and used to take the services of the juvenile who was a sex worker. The accused had killed the project manager after a dispute over Rs.40,000. The manager had taken the money from the accused on the pretext of giving him a job.
The High Court had in February directed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to constitute a medical board to determine the age of the accused. He had claimed to be a juvenile in his appeal against his conviction and the sentence of life imprisonment awarded by the trial court.
Earlier, the Lady Harding Medical College had conducted the age determination test on the accused but the Court had rejected it. Thereafter, it had assigned the job to AIIMS.
A Division Bench of Justice Kailash Gambir and Justice Sunita Gupta ordered his release when the AIIMS report declared him a juvenile on the day he committed the crime.