30 November 2012 :

a youth who raped and murdered a minor in 2007 has escaped the gallows, in India, only because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime. Relying on a report of the medical board of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, the Delhi High Court set aside the death penalty awarded to Rajan (name changed) by a trial court. The trial court had awarded death sentence to Rajan nine months ago, saying he had committed a brutal and grotesque offence and was a menace to the society. Delhi High Court says the rapist was a juvenile at the time of crime The HC bench, however, ordered that Rajan should not be released from jail and his case be dealt by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.P. Garg said, "If we go by the medical opinion, the appellant accused on the said date (August 14, 2007) could be a juvenile or less than 18 years of age when the alleged offence was committed. According to the police, Rohini resident Rajan had lured away his neighbour's six-year-old daughter on August 14, 2007 night and raped and sodomised her before brutally battering and strangling her. The high court had asked the trial judge, who had awarded the death penalty, to conduct an inquiry and ascertain his age. min comm