Dr Vishiesh Verma
On September 8, 2017 Seven year old Pradyuman Thakur was found bleeding inside the toilet of Ryan international School, Bhondsi, Gurugram and declared dead after being taken to a hospital. Initially the matter was investigated by Haryana Police, which had booked a bus conductor of the school for killing the innocent child. However, later the case was referred to CBI for probe. Punjab and Haryana High Court directed CBI to produce status report pertaining to the investigation carried by the agency in Pradyuman’s murder so far. A few days after taking over investigations CBI produced 16 year old class XI student of the same school for Pradyuman’s murder before the judicial magistrate of the Juvenile Justice Board. The Juvenile was taken to Ryan International School to recreate the crime scene. He was taken to a shop from where he had purchased a knife which was used to kill Pradyuman. During counselling the juvenile told the board that he knew the victim before murder. “We used to attend piano classes together in the school”, he said. The victim’s father confirmed that his son had been attending piano classes for the last two years. The teenager told the Juvenile Justice Board members that he was good at piano playing but couldn’t concentrate on his studies due to the hostile atmosphere at home. A Highly placed source in Haryana state commission for the protection of child Rights told ‘The Hindu’ that the teen-ager said the atmosphere in his home was tense because of constant fights between his parents. Being unprepared he wanted the examination to be postponed at any cost.
The Juvenile also revealed that he carried a knife in his bag on the day of murder but had no plan to use it. On Sept 8, morning he kept the bag in his classroom and went to the ground floor with knife, he saw Pradyuman entering the school premises and took him to the washroom on some pretext and stood behind him and then slit his throat, left the knife in the washroom, went out and informed the gardener and teachers about Pradyuman lying in a pool of blood.
The entire recreation was video graphed. The accused was asked to explain the entire chain of events. The team accompanied by forensic experts took various measurements, recorded the time and then the agency used a soft toy and asked the accused to slit its throat.
The Juvenile Justice Board has decided the 16-year old student of the Ryan International School, apprehended in connection with the murder of his school-mate will be tried as an adult. If convicted he could be sentenced to even 14 years in Jail. As per section 21 of the Juvenile Justice Act, Juveniles can’t be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. In case of conviction the Juvenile will stay in the observation home till the age of 21 years. The Session Judge rejected his bail plea as he was hyper, aggressive and restless, upset and killed his school mate just to get the examination postponed. The court directed the media not to use Juvenile’s name in any of the reports.
In Ryan’s International School Bhondsi Gurugram, murder of 7 year old Pradyuman Thakur by his 16 year old school-mate, Class XI student on Sept 8, 2017 to get his examination postponed has shaken the society.
The reason given by the offender was, “The infighting among the family members kept the atmosphere at home tense and stressful which led to his lack of concentration.”
To prevent this type of crime, various suggestions have been made. First, in family, parents should pay more attention to their children, especially when they discover the strange behaviours of children. The nature of the adolescents needs empathy. Before the age of 10, children believe in parents as their idols to emulate. There are no two opinions that the family setup is most important for all round development of an individual. The family is the basic socialization agency for him. He learns basic concepts about good and bad from this institution. The adolescents of delinquent behaviour in any form belong to the families, unable to give firm foundation to their children to behave positively. Family is the role model for every child. It can make or break his personality. The growth of child to desired level depends on nature (Home environment) and nurture. We live in a socio-psycho-biological field and are influenced by all the three forces, all activities including criminal have nourishing soil we find with society, with the family and with the offender himself. Life can’t be meaningful to a child when the feelings of his parents fluctuate from love to hatred and from security to insecurity. What we need to have in the words of Wordsworth is:-
Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy our nature be,
When love is an unending light,
And joy is its own security
The Juvenile Justice Act (Care and protection of children) come into being after the recent inhuman gang rape of a young girl on December 16, 2013 which shocked the collective conscience of the nation. The brutality with which the heinous crime was committed was most shocking; it was later found out that among five accused, one was minor and he was the most barbaric one. Again, in another brutal gang rape case which is known as Shakti Mill Rape case, a minor was involved. These and several more recent events had triggered a public debate which led to the present Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, which treats persons below the age of 18 years as minor or juvenile being amended. The Act formulated offers provisions to try Juveniles above 16 years committing atrocious crimes as adults. Now the data released by the National crime records bureau (NCRB) shows 76% of all juvenile arrested for rape and murder in 2016 were in the age group of 16 years or above. Between January 1st , 2016 and December 31st ,2016 a year after the Act was passed, a total of 2034 Juveniles were arrested for rape, of them 1553(76%) were aged between 16 and 18 years which means they could be tried as adults, Similarly 901(76%) of 1185 arrested for murder were in the same age group.
Above all, while the Act provides for Juveniles above 16 years to be tried as an adult. It comes with the rider: The Juvenile Justice Board which generally consists of a magistrate will have psychologists and social experts in it which would make sure that the rights of the juvenile are duly protected if the crime was committed as a child. The trial of the case shall proceed on the basis of Board’s assessment report whether the concerned juvenile has committed the crime as a child or as an adult.
In conclusion it can be said that whatever changes be made in the Act, it should be the interest of justice which must prevail. A law must not be made or amended due to single act of barbarism; because a law is for all and for all time to come. Therefore, we must ask ourselves whether we as a society want to have a justice system based on retribution and punishment or a system which is reformative and assimilative for the juvenile offenders. The State as well as the society has a responsibility towards our children in the sense that they would not become wayward and remain in the social mainstream.
(The Writer is a former Reader Coordinator of University of Jammu)
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