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.
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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.