The 16-year-old apprehended in connection with the murder of a 7-year-old schoolmate has been sent to judicial custody till December 20.
The teenager was produced before the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Board here by the Central Bureau of Investigation team around noon after his 14-day judicial custody ended on Wednesday. He is presently lodged at an observation home in Faridabad.
Advocate Sandeep Aneja, who represents the juvenile, said, “We moved an application before the court today [on Wednesday] demanding that the name of the child should not come up during the proceedings since he is juvenile. We also filed a reply to the CBI application seeking his fingerprints. The court has now fixed the matter for December 8.”
Besides the CBI’s application seeking the juvenile’s fingerprints, another application accusing the CBI of interrogating him beyond permissible the time limit will come up for argument on Friday. The juvenile’s father had moved an application before the JJ Board on November 11 seeking appropriate action against the Investigation Officer and the CBI for allegedly violating its orders.
The application said the JJ Board had specifically directed the CBI to conduct interrogation between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for three days but the agency had “openly flouted” these orders.
Meanwhile, the social investigation report and the juvenile’s psychological assessment reports have been submitted to the Board in sealed envelopes. While the psychological assessment was submitted on Tuesday, the other report was submitted over a week ago. The Board will decide based on these reports whether the juvenile can be tried as an adult in the case.
The murdered boy’s father had moved the Board on November 15 seeking for trial of the juvenile as an adult. Moving an application through his counsel Sushil K. Tekriwal, he had argued that the manner in which his son’s throat was slit showed that the crime was “chilling, horrific and serious” in nature. The application said the juvenile was above 16 years of age and should be tried as an adult as per the mandate, warrant and spirit of the amendment carried out in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, with effect from January 15, 2016.
