Mumbai: 16-year-old pushed girl to death, try him as an adult, say police

MUMBAI: After a 16-year-old boy pushed a 13-year-old girl off the eighth floor of a building in Goregaon (east), resulting in her death two months ago, the police have written to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) requesting that he be tried as an adult. The children’s court will take a final decision.
The amended Juvenile Justice Act says children between 16 and 18 years can be tried as adults if they have committed a heinous offence (one that attracts a minimum punishment of seven years).But it’s not mandatory for every juvenile delinquent in this age group to be tried as an adult. An assessment is conducted, and among the factors considered are whether the child has the mental and physical capacity to commit such an offence, whether the child has the ability to understand its consequences, and the circumstances in which the offence was committed.
The victim’s father told TOI that losing their daughter destroyed their world and if the teenaged accused is tried as an adult, he could be awarded the strictest punishment. “The act that he committed was beyond brutal... not something a ‘child’ would do,” he said.
The father said the teen did not seem to regret what he had done. “We recently came across a video clip on social media where the teen is seen boasting on camera that he will be freed and come back. He addresses the people of our residential locality in the clip and adds that they needn’t worry about him. How was a video clip shot inside the juvenile observation home? This has come as a huge shock to us and appears to be a threat,” the victim’s mother said. TOI has a copy of the video clip.
The boy’s parents had also been arrested in the case on charges of “causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to screen an offender” as they had deleted all conversations between him and the victim from his cellphone and sent him to Sion to a relative’s place after the incident. “The parents have been granted bail,” a police officer said.
The girl’s family said they are convinced there are others involved in the murder and the teen couldn’t have acted alone. “We have urged the police to carry out a thorough probe,” said her father.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)